Yar'Adua's Seven Plus Two Point Agenda to Transform Nigeria

Seven Major Issues.................

1. Power and Energy .

2. Food Security and Agriculture

3. Wealth Creation and Employment

4. Mass Transportation

5. Land Reform

6. Security

7. Qualitative and Functional Education

Plus Two Special Interest Issues....

1. Niger Delta

2. Disadvantaged Groups

POWER AND ENERGY – The infrastructural reforms in this critical sector through the development of sufficient and adequate power supply will be to ensure Nigeria’s ability to develop as a modern economy and an industrial nation by the year 2015.

FOOD SECURITY – This reform is primarily agrarian based. The emphasis on the development of modern technology, research, financial injection into research, production and development of agricultural inputs will revolutionalize the agricultural sector leading to a 5 – 10 fold increase in yield and production. This will result in massive domestic and commercial outputs and technological knowledge transfer to farmers.

WEALTH CREATION – By virtue of its reliance on revenue from non-renewal oil, Nigeria has yet to develop industrially. This reform is focused on wealth creation through diversified production especially in the agricultural and solid mineral sector. This requires Nigerians to choose to work, as hard work by all is required to achieve this reform.

TRANSPORT SECTOR – The transportation sector in Nigeria with its poor roads networks is an inefficient means of mass transit of people and goods. With a goal of a modernized industrialized Nigeria, it is mandatory that Nigeria develops its transport sector. The PDP government has already started this process by the ongoing rehabilitation and modernization of the railway. While the reforms might take some time to take effect, it is a need that must be addressed.

LAND REFORMS – While hundreds of billions of dollars have been lost through unused government-owned landed asset, changes in the land laws and the emergence of land reforms will optimize Nigeria’s growth through the release of lands for commercialized farming and other large scale business by the private sector. The final result will ensure improvements and boosts to the production and wealth creation initiatives.

SECURITY – An unfriendly security climate precludes both external and internal investment into the nation. Thus, security will be seen as not only a constitutional requirement but also as a necessary infrastructure for the development of a modern Nigerian economy. With its particular needs, the Niger Delta security issue will be the primary focus, marshaled not with physical policing or military security, but through honest and accurate dialogue between the people and the Federal Government.

EDUCATION – The two-fold reforms in the educational sector will ensure firstly the minimum acceptable international standards of education for all. With that achieved, a strategic educational development plan will ensure excellence in both the tutoring and learning of skills in science and technology by students who will be seen as the future innovators and industrialists of Nigeria. This reform will be achieved through massive injection into the Education sector.

Released by the Presidency, August 1, 2007

http://www.nigerianmuse.com/important_documents/?u=INAUGURAL_ADDRESS_President_Umaru_Musa_Yar_adua_of_Nigeria.htm
Inaugural Address of Umaru Musa Yar’adua, Installed President of Nigeria
Abuja, May 29, 2007

12-01-2007 08:47:59

Nigeria-Candidate-Programme

Presidential candidate of Nigerian ruling party unfolds 7-point action plan

APA - Lagos (Nigeria) The presidential candidate of the Nigerian ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Umaru Yar’adua said on Thursday in Abuja that he will dialogue with the people of the Niger Delta on the youth restiveness in the region.

Yar’adua, who announced a seven-point action plan for his administration if elected President, told journalists that the resolution of the Niger Delta crisis will be part of a comprehensive security plan of his regime.

“We will invest heavily on the resolution of the Niger Delta crisis as part of our security strategy, with focus on dialogue with the people," he said.

He explained that security agencies would be given adequate financial attention, to enable them cope with new challenges and argued : “There cannot be a viable economy without a good security system."

Yar’adua also promised that more than 30,000 megawatts of electricity would be realized in the first five years of the administration, and assured that the ongoing reforms in the power sector would be sustained.

“Our plan is to launch a national emergency programme on the power sector, because we believe that there cannot be any meaningful industrial development without steady power supply," he said.

On food security, the presidential candidate said he would commit “heavy investment’’ into the agriculture sector to boost production and improve technology in modern farming.

“Our desire is to invest heavily in agriculture, to increase productivity and to revolutionize the agriculture technology through injection of more funds," he added.

He said he would diversify the country’s source of wealth creation, to avoid continuous dependence on the petroleum sector and said : “You cannot run an economy with revenue from just one source."

Yar’adua said he would encourage greater exploitation of the agriculture and solid mineral sectors to expand the country’s revenue base and to transform the transportation system by investing in the railways, roads and waterways.

“We need an effective, efficient and reliable transportation network for the country, to ease the movement of goods and people to meet with the increasing demands of our economy," he said.

At the launch of his campaign office earlier in the day, Yar’adua said all PDP candidates were set to start campaigns for the April general elections.

“The launch of this office shows that myself and all the PDP candidates across the country are set to go to the field, with the zeal to work hard and win at the polls," he said.

The national chairman of PDP, Chief Ahmadu Ali, who spoke at the event attended by President Olusegun Obasanjo, challenged opposition parties to launch their campaign programmes for the electorate to make a comparison.

He called on Nigerians to cooperate with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the success of the general elections and said : “We want to ensure an election that is free, fair and credible before the eyes of the watching international community."

Yar’Adua Rolls Out Seven-point Agenda

Umaru Yar’Adua, the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP) Presidential candidate, got off the block on Thursday by enunciating a seven-point agenda to tackle the myriad of problems in Africa’s most populous country.

He told a press conference after his campaign headquarters (Legacy House) was commissioned in Abuja, that he would declare a national emergency on energy and power, to get Nigeria out of economic predicament, since power is the tonic for industrial growth.

He was accompanied by his running mate, Goodluck Jonathan; PDP National Chairman, Ahmadu Ali; and Board of Trustees (BOT) Chairman, Tony Anenih.Governor Adamu Mu’azu of Bauchi State has been named as his Chief of Staff, while Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State has joined the PDP National Campaign Council. Yar’Adua expressed hope that power supply would rise to 10,000 megawatts (mw) before the end of the year.

This proposal is feasible, he stressed, because the country needs to achieve at least 30,000 mw in 2011 and 50,000 mw by 2015. He promised to carry out massive industrialisation so that Nigeria would move from a consumer nation to a productive one. He said he would tackle corruption headlong to ensure "a civilised society where laws are obeyed."

He plans to repeal the Land Use Act of 1978 through reforms that would liberalise the acquisition and ownership of land. The Act places such ownership in the hands of the government. Worried by the inconsistencies in the Constitution – among them the procedure for the creation of councils – Yar’Adua stressed the need for amendments to correct the imbalances in the system, as Constitution need conforms with realities for effective application.

He spoke of food security as an impetus for the productive sector, and promised investment in agriculture through modernising its technology.This, he said, would anchor on the desire for wealth creation "so that we can shift from the undue emphasis on oil and gas, now our burden." Yar’Adua lamented that dependence on oil and gas revenue is like building an economy on revenue from rents. He promised to change the trend by developing agriculture and the solid minerals sector.

He harped on the need for a radical turn around in the security of lives and property, which "is a necessary infrastructure for the development of a modern economy, because local and foreign investors would be assured of their investments." He pledged to give priority to security in the Niger Delta and to anchor his programmes on the PDP manifesto bound by the tenets of the Constitution.

To develop human capacity, Yar’Adua promised to declare free and compulsory education for all children at all levels if elected, and to fund the sector sufficiently. Anenih, too, was up beat. He scoffed at the chances of opposition parties in the elections and enthused that the PDP would double its victory in 2003. He told the party faithful to go all out because there is no opposition. Legacy House was President Olusegun Obasanjo’s campaign office in 2003, which Anenih headed.

Before the polls that year, Anenih had declared that there were no vacancies in the Government Houses controlled by the PDP. It proved right, except in Kano. He maintained on Thursday that the PDP has laid the road map towards victory and told the members to gather the harvest. Ali said the choice of Yar’Adua and Jonathan represents a generational shift to implement the party’s programmes.

He expressed hope that the policies of the PDP provide the guiding principle for meaningful development. Director General of PDP Campaign Organisation, Bode George, said the commissioning of the office is a bold stride of the determination to consolidate democracy. The PDP has a message of hope for all Nigerians as Obasanjo formally hands over Legacy House to Yar’Adua, he said.

www.independentngonline.com