By Segun James
The Presidential candidate of Accord Party, Isaac Babatunde Ositelu, has warned that the economy of Nigeria is in a dire straits, saying that it requires an astute manager to give it a positive turn around at this critical period.
Ositelu however made it clear that the person that can make this turnaround is certainly not President Muhammadu Buhari, and as such, he has asked Nigerians to reject him at the polls to save the country.
The Accord Party Presidential hopeful said that he would solve the humongous economic challenges by focusing on agriculture and industrial development. According to him it does not require rocket science to determine what the nation needs to move forward.
He said that by adopting the backward integration economic policy, he could reverse the trending rural-urban migration currently plaguing the nation. He stressed that the economic activities to be generated in each geo-political zones of the country would help to stem the population drift from the rural areas to the urban centres.
He however, said that for Nigeria to come out of the present state of despair in its socio-political and economic travesty, the electorates must reject the candidacy of Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to Ositelu, who says he has the solution to the nation’s economic problems, the comprehensive policy document of his government will ensure the provision of reliable and clean energy in the various critical masses across the country, saying that industrial parks and markets as well as manufacturing hubs across the country would be given focused priority in the provision of electricity, portable water and critical infrastructure that will help to grow and develop the nation’s economy.
Ositelu said that his government would carry out the mapping of the nation’s current and future manufacturing hubs, industrial parks and markets so that information sharing critical for support services could be easily accessible for operators in the various sectors of the economy. He assured that building and sustaining the rural roads would be given a pride of place in the policy drive to connect the nooks and crannies of the economic roadmap of his government.
On agriculture, which he said can be the mainstay of the nation’s economy, Ositelu promised to turn Nigeria to the food basket for the West Africa sub-region during his tenure as the President of the largest populated country in Africa. He assured that not only will the nation be self-sufficient in food production for local consumption, Nigeria would also embark on export of food crops to countries in the sub-region.
He said that Nigeria is blessed with very resourceful and enterprising population, excellent weather and expansive land area good enough for large scale food productions. According to him, the tertiary institutions; particularly the universities of agriculture and the relevant stakeholders in the agricultural value chain, as well as, financial institutions would be networked to form a coalition of support system in the sector.
Ositelu stressed that with the resources available in the country, hunger ought to be a rare feature of the nation’s socio-economic make up. According to him, the visionary plan of the Accord Party is to have hunger banished from the land by the guarantee of, at least, two meals for every citizen of Nigeria.
He said that the political leadership of Nigeria needs a break away from the old order that plunged the country into the abyss of low self-esteem, hunger, disease and backwardness as a nation. He said that the recent rating of Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world and its latest ranking as the third most terrorised nation of the world, are demeaning for the potentials and the huge image of Nigeria as a nation.
Promising a new beginning and a fresh start that would lift the nation out of the woods, he said that if voted into power as the next President of Nigeria, he would embark on economic rejuvenation that will bring prosperity to all parts of the country. Ositelu said that the economic blueprint of his party would focus on empowerment for the energetic and youthful population of Nigeria.
