- Report by Opeyemi Mudasir
The Presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress Bola Ahmed Tinubu has told the United Kingdom elite policy group, The Chatham House that his country Nigeria is still counting the cost of challenges posed by insecurity across the country.
Tinubu said both National and regional governments are feeling the heat just as he said that his administration would proffer solution to the challenges.
“As a people, we are still counting the costs of the challenges which different armed and criminal groups are posing to national and regional development. We know that thousands of lives have been lost and continue to be wasted.’ He said on Monday
Tinubu regretted that millions of Nigerians have been displaced as a result of the insecurity just as he listed different aspect of the challenges to include Radical Extremist Terrorism, Banditry, Kidnappings, Human Trafficking, Trafficking in Weapons, Trafficking in drugs, Climate Change, Resource Driving Conflicts etc
He said, “We’ve seen the thousands of people who have been internally displaced at home or forced into refugee camps abroad. With farming activities disrupted, we’ve seen shortages of food items and food price inflation that have undermining human security. I can go on and on in enumerating the cost that I’ve been inflicted on the mass of people by the crisis of insecurity.”
The APC candidate who also spoke on the dwindling economy, said his administration will address discrepancies noticed in fiscal and monetary policies of the current administration.
Many economists had in recent times, challenged the Muhammadu Buhari government of creating an imbalance between fiscal and monetary policies.
He said “‘We will address the conflict between monetary and fiscal policies. Budgeting will be based on the projected spending levels needed to push real annual growth rate above 7 per cent while reducing the unemployment rate.”
The APC presidential candidate also said the next election in Nigeria is coming at a point when Africa is experiencing some instability in form of military incursion into the political affairs of their country.
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“Firstly, as Africa most populous country and the continent largest economy, it is generally acknowledged that fortunes of African continent and indeed the black race is tied directly to the earth of Nigeria. Also, the Nigeria elections of 2023 are coming up at a time when the countries immediate Geographical neighborhood of West Africa and Central Africa is undergoing serious political turmoil that has manifested itself in the incursion of the Military into power in a number of countries.In spite of legitimate concern being experienced by
observers, Nigerians are resolutely committed to democracy regardless of their political differences.”
Tinubu also promised to tackle unemployment saying this is one of the areas that feed insecurity.
“We will reduce unemployment rate so that we can double the economy in Ten years. At another level,we must learn to make policy work for our better our domestic, social, economic and political priorities. To do so, our foreign policy apparatus will need to be renewed to take full advantage of Global Initiatives and processes that work for us and tallied with our domestic priorities,” he told the Chatham House gathering.