Posted by By JACOB EDI, Abuja on
Presidential flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua on Thursday unveiled a seven -point agenda just as he declared that the issue of constitutional amendment will be revisited under his presidency.
Presidential flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua on Thursday unveiled a seven -point agenda just as he declared that the issue of constitutional amendment will be revisited under his presidency. He admitted there are flaws in the 1999 Constitution which needs to be looked at by the National Assembly.
Yar'Adua also stated that although he will always consult with the leadership of the party, he would not allow the party to dictate to him, insisting that as President he derives his powers from the constitution of the country.
'There is not going to be any incursion into the powers of the presidency by the party. The President derives its powers from the Nigerian constitution. Nigerians would have elected us to implement the PDP manifesto. We will be sitting to examine our programmes with the party's leadership from time to time," Yar'Adua stated.
He spoke in Abuja at his maiden press conference shorlty after the commissioning of Legacy House as the Yar'Adua Presidential campaign headquarters. Yar'Adua's seven-point agenda include declaration of a national emergency on power supply under the critical infrastructural reform programme, food security, wealth creation, development of mass transit, land reform, security and development of human capacity.
According to him, there is no nation in the world that has progressed as a consumer economy. He said the only way out for the nation is to be a producing economy which will not over rely on the oil sector alone as is currently the case, noting that development efforts in the country over the years 'have been uncoordinated, unsustained and adhoc, until the Obasanjo regime came on board."
'No economy or nation can be built on rent collection. What we are getting from oil is like rent. Attention must go to primary area of production in the area of agriculture and mineral resources," Yar'Adua said adding that the states as constituted now have no business waiting for federal allocation. In the area of security, Yar'Adua refused to say categorically whether he will encourage state police but said the Federal Government under him would invest heavily on security with particular emphasis on the Niger Delta.
He however expalined that 'the security we are talking about in the Niger-Delta is not all about police and military personnel but we will go into dialogue with the stake-holders in order to create an atmosphere for peace and then we shall monitor the deployment of resources to the region."
The PDP presidential flag bearer said the time has come for Nigerians to make a choice on whether to be on the right path of developement or not. ' Our economy as a nation must break from poverty, ignorance,human misery to that of prosperity, human happiness and a developed economy," he added.