APC Unveils Manifesto For The Rapid Development of Nigeria

Fast-growing opposition party, All Progressives
Congress (APC), is set to unveil its manifesto,
designed as a "Roadmap To A New Nigeria", at the
party's National Summit to be held in Abuja on
Thursday, March 6th.
The manifesto was a product of an empirical and
painstaking process embarked upon by APC in a
deviation from the old practice of packaging a party's
manifesto on a whim.
''With conditions deteriorating throughout
Nigeria, with security an ever increasing
concern, with the lack of jobs pushing families
and young people further and further into
poverty and with new stories of corruption
within the PDP government appearing day after
day, the APC decided to commission the largest
ever public opinion survey in Nigerian history to
determine the current status of things in the
nation directly from those who knew best - the
actual people of Nigeria.
''The results were even more revealing than the
APC had anticipated : When asked, 'If the
election were held today, would you vote for
Goodluck Jonathan or the candidate of the All
Progressives Congress', the APC candidate held
a ten-point lead over the President. By a margin
of 44% to 34% (with 22% undecided), the APC
candidate was the clear national choice.
''When asked, 'In general, do you think things in
Nigeria are going in a good direction or bad
direction', by a staggering more than two-to-one
margin (50%-24%), Nigerians responded that the
country was going in a bad direction. When asked,
'What issue would you like the President and National
Assembly to focus on most', an overwhelming
majority (60%) said jobs was the dominant issue that
the government should address .
''And then when asked if they found the following
statement convincing or not, 'Goodluck Jonathan
has done nothing to create jobs, and far too many
people are still unemployed', decisively, 58% of
Nigerians found that argument about Jonathan
convincing. Finally when asked if Jonathan was
doing a good or bad job fighting corruption, 59%
Nigerians thought Jonathan was doing a bad job
fighting corruption."
Interim National Publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, said in a statement issued on Sunday
that the Road-map will detail the party's priorities in
fixing the wide spread failings of successive PDP
governments since 1999, in order to bring hope and
succour to the long-suffering people of Nigeria.
''The voice of the people was clear: The nation is
going in the wrong direction. The nation wants
change and would not vote to re-elect Jonathan in
part because the number one issue to Nigerians is
jobs and the nation believes Jonathan has no
credibility on the issue of job creation,'' APC said.
According to the party, the unveiling of the party's
manifesto, designed with the survey results in mind
and the real needs of the Nigerian people made
evident by the people themselves, will be the clearest
indication yet that the Movement for Change has
indeed begun.