The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has restated the party’s determination to deliver on all the promises made during the 2015 elections.
Odigie-Oyegun said this in a New Year message to Nigerians on Thursday.
He noted that while 2015 was difficult for many Nigerians, it was important also to look back with relief and a collective sense of jubilation to the momentous opportunity it offered to the electorate to make the long-desired change of political leadership at the federal level and in many states.
The party chairman said as Nigerians, there was the need to sustain the hope that brighter days ahead of us. Although the challenges might be many, he said there was the courage and determination to rise up and tackle them.
Odigie-Oyegun said, “I want to give a firm assurance that all the promises made by the party in respect of the 2015 election, to Nigerians will be kept. The New Year holds great dividends for Nigerians when the policies of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration are enforced full blast in the 2016 financial year.
“The unprecedented N6.08tn ‘Budget of Change’ presented by the President to a joint session of the 8th National Assembly on December 22, 2015 provides ample framework to deliver on these promises.
“These include the proposed social welfare programmes, which will pay unemployed Nigerian graduates (post-NYSC grant); feed school children and cater for a larger population of the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians.”
According to him, as a result of the full implementation of the Treasury Single Account, the Federal Government is now able to, in real-time, electronically track and monitor all government revenue inflows and disbursements, a development that has greatly plugged revenue leakages.
He argued that in line with the party’s promise to restructure the country’s oil and gas sector which had been marred by corruption and inefficiencies, government had set in motion a mechanism to unbundle the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to enhance productivity, transparency and accountability.
Odigie-Oyegun explained that President Buhari’s administration inherited a corruption-tainted subsidy regime ran by corrupt cartels. He said oil cartels and their cronies resisting change had continued to blackmail and sabotage government’s effort on the issue of subsidy and availability of petroleum products.
He said to this end, the presidential directive to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to adjust its pricing template to reflect competitive and market driven components should be supported.
“A review of PPPRA’s pricing template will result in a more efficient and realistic pricing system for petroleum products and also result in constant availability of fuel nationwide,” he said.
On the war against the Boko Haram insurgency, the party chairman said it was also reassuring that Nigeria’s war against insurgency was being won. With their welfare now taken more seriously, he said the morale of Nigeria’s troops in combat areas had been heightened.
He added that the international community had shown cooperation with Nigeria’s military offensives, including sharing of intelligence information to end insurgency in Nigeria as part of the efforts to combat global terrorism.
Odigie-Oyegun took a swipe at the opposition Peoples Democratic Party. He accused the PDP of being shameless and desperate in its attempt to discredit President Buhari’s anti-corruption efforts.
He expressed delight that this notwithstanding, the war against graft was being won. He said it was reassuring that the Federal Government had recovered huge sums from looters of the nation’s common wealth, which would be injected into the 2016 National Budget.
The party also urged its members to be law abiding and shun acts capable of bringing it into disrepute. It also appealed to members of the National Assembly to rise above ethnic, sectional and party differences in passing the 2016 budget submitted by President Buhari.
Speaking in a similar vein, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, urged Nigerians to reflect on and dedicate themselves to unity, equity, security and development as they welcome the New Year.
Atiku said this in a New Year message issued by his media office in Abuja, on Thursday.
According to him, every New Year, such as this, is a prime time for inner self reflection, stocktaking, resolutions and covenants.
The former Vice President said, “I urge my compatriots to remember their country in their every day prayers and actions throughout 2016 and beyond. For citizens are like spokes in the wheel of national progress; the whole can only function well if the units work positively in tandem. Nigerians should therefore work in concert to make Nigeria the great country of their dream.”
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