Friday, November 5, 2010

Nigeria and the World


Our position in the world of the 21st century will depend upon the action we take to rebuild our democracy, how robustly we act to transform our image as a pariah nation ruled by a corrupt and dictatorial elite, and how soon we repair the ruins of our battered economy to give citizens a comfortable living within our own borders. It is clear, however, that the re-structuring of the Nigerian economy will depend upon our linkage with the world in investment, trade and technology transfer. Diplomacy in the 21st century is bound to be primarily economic in character and our economic relations with the United States of America, the European Union, Japan, China, India, the OPEC countries, the WTO, ECOWAS and the African Union will dominate our foreign affairs. But while we pursue our national interests in all these relationships, Nigeria will always be sensitive to the need for good neighbourliness, peace, mutual security and multi-lateral approaches to global integration.

To achieve optimal economic growth and a good standing among the nations of the world, the All Progressives Grand Alliance will take the following measures:

i. APGA will promote and expand all bilateral and multi-lateral agreements which will strengthen Nigerian democracy and support our economic development.

ii. APGA will strengthen our ties with ECOWAS nations and our leadership position in the West African sub-region and hasten the operation of the treaties for the free movement of goods and persons and for the introduction of a common currency.

iii. APGA will continue to support MINCOMAR, UASC and other sub-regional treaties of understanding to promote trade and development of shipping in the West African sub-region.

iv. APGA will work for the full realization of the African Union as a platform for African development, for the negotiation of international agreements upon an advantageous footing with great nations of the world, and for the uplifting of the dignity of the black people of the world.

v. APGA believes that Nigeria, as the sixth largest oil producer and a major player in gas production could become a force to be reckoned with in the world energy sector and that its strength in this regard could be turned to diplomatic advantage.

vi. APGA will work through the African Union and in concert with other organizations of the Third World to achieve better terms for countries of the Third World in the WTO.

vii. APGA will continue to discharge Nigeria’s obligations as a member of the United Nations and its agencies and to pursue policies of mutual cooperation and coexistence with all other nations of the world.

viii. APGA will support the establishment, through the United Nations, of a just peace in the world and the end of terrorism as the means of solving political problems.

We offer this manifesto as a covenant between the All Progressives Grand Alliance and the people of Nigeria and as a binding oath of what we will do if the nation gives us its support.

Youth, Sports & Culture


The All Progressives Grand Alliance considers that policies for the development of youth, sports and culture are an aspect of national education. Their overriding aim is the creation of a new generation sound in body and mind, full of confidence and team spirit that has been developed in the field of competitive sport at the highest level, and capable of every challenge of an unpredictable world with easy assurance. In giving the youth a secure footing: in our cultural heritage, we give them an anchor which enables them to appropriate the technology and business sophistication of the modem world without losing their grounding in a secure traditional system of values. In club activities and team sports, experience are garnered which are directly applicable to nation building and future leadership responsibilities.

For the attainment of this goal, an APGA government:

i. Will initiate and monitor the implementation of legislations that fully protects the rights of the child defend the child against all forms of abuse and societal exploitation keeping with Geneva Convention on the Rights of Child.

ii. Will supports morally and financially, all existing youth groups whose programmes are consistent with the moral, physical and intellectual nurturing of the young.

iii. Will encourage the youth to take part in community development activities and programmes as a way of preparing them for future leadership roles.
iv. Will seek ways of making the National Youth Service programme more attractive to the youth by improving service conditions.

v. Will use intensive awareness campaign both in the media and through organized youth groups to sensitise the youth to the dangers of cultism, alcoholism, drug abuse, promiscuity and all other forms of social vices.

vi. Will create vocational and skill acquisition centres for the training of youths who do not have the benefit of formal education.

vii. Will encourage in more concrete terms, youth who are involved in sports, athletics through the provision of better facilities for training and recreation. In the same vein our national sports team shall receive full government support at all times and youth who excel in this pursuit will receive national recognition.

viii. Will sponsor individual sportsmen and women to participate in international sports competitions outside the country.

ix. Will encourage physically disabled youth who show interest in sports by providing specialized equipment and facilities for training.

x. Will support the building of sports centres in every local government area of the country.

xi. Will lay the foundation far our youth to begin to participate internationally in sports like gymnastics, cycling, fencing, swimming etc.

xii. Will encourage the promotion of our rich cultural heritage through annual cultural fiestas and participating in international cultural festivals.

xiii. Will promote annual exhibitions of arts, artefacts and crafts during which prizes are awarded.

xiv. Will ensure that cultural studies are introduced into the academic curriculum at all levels of education. This will keep alive our heritage in the consciousness of the youth.

Policy on Women


Although women in Nigerian societies have played every role including those of being monarch, warrior or priest, there is no doubt whatsoever that in the allocation of power and resources we have favoured men. In the spirit of post - Beijing reconstruction for the achievement of gender parity and a more inclusive democracy, the All progressives Grand Alliance will take the following measures for the empowerment of the fair sex who, according to the 1991 National Census, constitute half (49.6%) of the Nigerian electorate.

i. APGA will sponsor public enlightenment programmes to fight gender inequality and gender insensitivities in every aspect of our national life.

ii. APGA will promote affirmative action by employers to place women in positions of authority.

iii. APGA will use the media and other means of persuasion to promote the education of the girl child on a basis of equality with the boy child and as we proceed into an era of compulsory education, it will be a breach of the law to withdraw girls from the school system .for any reason whatsoever until they attain the age of sixteen years.

iv. APGA will review credit guidelines in the relevant sections of the banking industry to make it easier for women (who are active in agriculture and the informal sector) to have access to credit.
v. APGA will sponsor legislation forbidding marriage before the age of 18 which is the recognized age for adulthood. In addition, a deliberate programme of re-orientation would be embarked upon to protect the dignity of the girl child by discouraging harmful customary practices and imposition of marriage partners upon young girls.

vi. APGA will support through scholarships and special grants, girls and women who show exceptional skills in their academic pursuits.

vii. APGA will review all labour laws which are insensitive to the special position of women as mothers and home builders.

viii. APGA will ensure that every facility is made available for women athletes to excel in their special discipline in athletics and sports.

ix. APGA will encourage women to seek elective office in local governments, the states and at the federal level.

APGA will give women senior political appointments in the spirit of Beijing Declaration.

Labour Policy

Nigerian labour unions have shown in the last few years that they are still at the fore front of the movement for good government and a democratic order. Under General Sani Abacha, they were unfailing in the sacrifices they were ready to make to defeat that evil regime. Since 1999, they have pioneered the demand for negotiated agreements and an equitable social order. With the purchasing power of the Naira still falling and increasing default of the payment of salaries as and when due, it is clear that in the next few years labour disputes will remain a recurrent factor in our public life. In dealing with labour APGA will he guided by the principle that a worker alienated from his labour by poor salaries will be a poor worker and that the Nigerian economy cannot prosper until we have industrial peace.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance will take the following measures in its labour relations.

i. APGA will set up a permanent Labour Council for discussion of all mailer which have to do with workers.

ii. APGA 'will recognize and encourage independent lahour unions, uphold all laws which protect their right and strengthen the machinery/or collective bargaining with public and private sector.

iii. APGA will review all laws dealing with trade disputes and ensure that they conform with democratic practice in other countries.

iv. APGA will ensure that the salaries and other entitlements of workers are paid as and when due.

v. In addition to the various efforts which are being made to create employment, APGA will set up direct labour forces, farm settlements and other emergency agencies to take up some of the unemployed manpower within the nation.

vi. As the purchasing power of the Naira has not fallen to less than 1% of the original value, APGA will set up a Commission to review the entire question of salaries and conditions of service as they affect the entire economy.

Communications Policy


The consumption of steel was at one time the yardstick by which the development of nations was measured. Later plastics displaced steel as the index of economic development. In today’s world, telecommunications and information technology have become rough and ready indices of the progress of nations because they are fundamental structures for economic growth and human fulfillment.

In this critical area, Nigerian government policy has been at best haphazard and marred by vested and personal interests, instead of being guided by national interest. The communications sector has, therefore, continued to lag behind. GSM operators have, in the last nine months, added 900,000 lines to the national telecommunications network. But the increase has not thought us into par with Southern and Northern Africa.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance will vigorously pursue a policy that will lead Nigeria into the modem communications age with a ten-fold increase in available service. To this effect, APGA will proceed along the path of deregulation, privatization and democratization.

It will take steps:-
i. To liberalise the sector by licensing more telecommunication carriers.

ii. To reduce or abolish, as appropriate, all import duties on communications, computer and other IT equipment, raw materials and spares.

iii.To abolish excise duties on locally manufactured or assembled communications and IT equipment.

iv. To support local manufacturers and assemblers of communications and IT equipment through deferential import duties, tax rebates and duty draw-backs for exported products made in Nigeria.

v. To provide basic infrastructure for communications and IT operators.

vi. To pursue a vigorous programme of rural telephony to bring producers in remote areas into the main stream of national and global markets.

vii. To introduce compulsory computer studies in the education system.











Transport Policy


Nigerian transporters deserve credit for the work they have done in transport services especially in air transport and in inter-state luxury bus services. The transport system lacks coherence, however, and several sectors, notably water transport and commuter services within our busy cities need planning and systernatisation.

The transport policy of the All Progressives Grand Alliance proposes the following aims and objectives:

i. To create an efficient, interlinked national transport network capable of moving people and good comfortably and safely throughout the country.

ii. To develop efficient and serviceable capabilities in water transport and rail transport.

iii. To review the institutions and regulations governing transport services

iv. To democratize and decentrolise the institutions responsible for road construction, road maintenance and transport generally.


Air Transport
APGA will initiate the following measures for the re-organization and development of air transport.

i. APGA will constitute the Nigeria Airport Authority into a compact professional agency charged with responsibilities for planning, the supervision of construction, the maintenance of facilities and inspection. It should raise enough funds from the fees it charges for it to operate without statutory allocations.

ii. Every Nigerian airport will be operated on commercial lines by a private limited liability company.

iii. APGA will commercialize the Nigerian Airways immediately and gradually position the undertaking for privatization.

iv. APGA will encourage Nigerian entrepreneurs presently operating in air transport to form a joint stock partnership that will enable them to improve their services and operate long-haul trans-continental services in competition with air carriers of the European Union and the United States of America.

v. To assist Nigerian air transport companies in acquiring aircraft. APGA will authorize the operation of an Aircraft Purchase Loan Fund on the same basis as the Shipping Fund which facilitated the purchase of ships by Nigerian shipping companies.

vi. APGA will ensure for the convenience of the public, that every geographical zone in the country has an international airport.

vii. For the safety of Nigerian air travelers, there shall be a strict reinforcement of the regulations for aircraft maintenance.


Sea & River Transport
i. APGA will constitute the Nigerian Ports Authority into a compact professional agency on the same lines as the Nigerian Airport Authority in 2(i) above.

ii. Similarly, every Nigerian Seaport or river port will be operated on commercial lines by a private limited liability company.

iii. To assist Nigerian shipping lines in acquiring ships, APGA will re-introduce the Ship Acquisition Fund and ensure that it operates without abuse.

iv. To expand river transport and make it safe, the dredging of major rivers will be continuous.

Railways
Started in 1893, railway services were the mainstream of transport in Nigeria up to the early 1950. But they were slow and did not extend sufficiently throughout the country. Gradually their dominant position was taken over by road and air transport.

i. APGA will continue the process of reconstruction, requirement, modernization and expansion of the railways especially for bulk haulage and for cheap long distance travel.

ii. In this regard, conversion to the standard gauge and the purchase of well-equipped modern coaches for the comfort of long-distance travelers will be a priority.

iii. New lines from Lagos to Calabar and from Sokoto to Maiduguri and Yola will be built.

iv. The Nigerian Railways will be fully commercialized then privatized and its operations decentralized for greater efficiency.

Road Transport
This is a fully privatized public services which should, with the improvement of roads, the training of transport personnel, and the operations of regulatory services, be a model of public self-reliance. APGA policies will address the areas of need.

i. APGA will create Highway Authorities on the analogy of the Ports Authority and the Airports Authority to provide planning, the supervision of construction and maintenance and inspectorate services for road transport. The Authority will operate in the three tiers of government with the state tier being primarily responsible for operations.

ii. It is quite clear that the state of the roads is one of the fundamental difficulties of road transport, and that until dualisation, asphalting, drainage, and sustained maintenance is achieved road transport will continue to be dangerous. APGA will ensure that these difficulties are removed.

iii. Highway Authorities will create institutes of tram1Jort for the training of personnel in transport services. APGA believes that this measure will lead to greater knowledge and discipline in the use of the road.

iv. APGA will continue the programme of financing assistance for mass transit. The programme will he extended to taxi services in the main urban areas where congestions are severe as a result of the increasing cost of new vehicles.

v. APGA will instruct its local government councils to build fully equipped (with waiting rooms. cafeterias and telephones) for inter-city and inter-state transport.

vi. Airports, seaports and railway stations will also have bus stations to ensure easy linkage between various transport systems.

Housing and the Environment


The problem of housing Nigerians especially in urban areas has remained intractable since the days of the good old day of the Third Development Plan (1995) when it was thought that 202,000 housing units would deal with the problem. But every attempt so far made has failed often before it started. At the moment the estimate is that we need about 100,000 new housing units every year costing about N 1 million each which makes a total of N100 billion. It is safe to say that this bill cannot be met at public expense. But the 1991 National Housing Policy which set out to create a massive revolving loan fund financed by mortgages is still in force. What is lacking is the political and bureaucratic will to enforce the law. Similarly with regard to the environment the laws to end pollution and protect the water supply, the atmosphere and the surroundings are in the books. What is lacking is public compliance. On these matters, the All Progressives Grand Alliance believes that with the right programmes of public enlightenment and democratic dialogue with the people, a great deal can be achieved.

The programmes of the All Progressives Grand Alliance will be as follows;

i. APGA will simplify the processes for the acquisition of land for building purposes by a massive use of the estate system.

ii. APGA will promote research for new building technologies to reduce costs.

iii. APGA will support the two tier system of fund mobilization in which the Federal Mortgage Bank is an apex institution working with private savings and loans institutions.

iv. At the same time. APGA will encourage private building societies and private savings and loans funds to be created in local government areas and states for savings mobilization.

v. APGA will use federal mortgage insurance organizations for re-financing mortgages.

vi. Re-discounting facilities for mortgages will be established to enable insurance companies and banks participate in mortgages thereby raising the enormous loan fund that is needed for housing.

vii. APGA will encourage employers, local government councils and private entrepreneurs, using the low interest housing fund to create low cost estates for sale to the public No estates will be put on the market until they have paved roads, light, water and drainage, and are environment - friendly.

viii. APGA will ensure that public conveniences are created in strategic places and that members of the public are not forced to indecency and the discharge o[refuse ever where in the streets.

ix. APGA will establish agencies for the monitoring of environmental protection, public sanitation and the restoration of tidyness and order in all public places.











Health Policy


The best private hospitals and private clinics in Nigeria deliver excellent health care services if you can afford to pay their exorbitant charges. The doctors and nurses are highly skilled. The operating theaters are well-equipped with the best technologies available in the health industry; and there is usually a good back--up of diagnostic laboratories and consultants. Judged by the standards of high-brow services which can be found in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna and Port Harcourt, Nigerian health care delivery services leave nothing to be desired.

But at the other end of the spectrum the situation is very different. Our general hospitals nation-wide are in ruins. Defective equipment are not repaired or replaced. Drugs are in short supply or non-existent. Patients are often made to buy their own medicines, surgical dressings, drips, blood for transfusion, hypodermic syringes, and razor blades. Hospital fees, which have to be paid up-front now, are so excessive that the great majority of the common people have to seek for medical help, not from hospitals, but from babalawos and prayer houses.

These developments are taking place in a depressed economy in which general adversity malnutrition and urban squalor are cooperating to undermine the health of the people. Cholera, celebre-spinal meningitis and tuberculosis are once again on the rampage. The Global scurge of HIV threatens not only the lives but the livelihood of families. Yet with these conditions, the best of our doctors, pharmacists and nurses are checking out. There is no record of the number of our medical people who have emigrated to Saudi Arabia, the United States of America and Great Britain; but the exodus has been such as to empty the teaching hospitals, general hospitals and the rural areas.

To make a totally intolerable health emergency even more desperate, a good many of the drugs sold off the counter in Nigeria today are fake concoctions more liable to harm than to heal the sick.

The crisis of health care delivery in the nation requires dramatic high-priority attention. And already the present government appears to be taking some action to stop the decay in teaching hospitals and government hospitals. The All Progressive Grand Alliance proposes that as these facilities are re-equipped, re-staffed and re-financed, they will begin to specialize as national centres of excellence in their chosen field, in open heart surgery for example, or renal medicine, or the treatment of the complications of hypertension. Until we are able to concentrate specialists, technology and other resources in specific hospitals to enable them give the best care possible anywhere in the world, rich Nigerians will not stop traveling abroad even for the treatment of minor conditions. Quite apart from the question of national pride and of saving hard currency costs, there is the question of making specialist medical services more generally available to the people.

But the great health care challenge for us is the challenge of providing a primary health care programme for the nation as a whole. A National Commission for this purpose has apparently already been set up. According to reports, the Commission has equipped 200 federally sponsored clinics for its programme. But the truth of the matter is that the Federal Government has no business in running a clinic anywhere. What is going on is a Federal Government usurpation for political purposes of state or local council duties.

Properly understood, primary health care is a wide range of actions which communities take to promote good health for the benefit of the people with the participation of the people. It includes actions taken to promote food supply and nutrition, safe water supply, sanitation in households and the environment, health education, maternal and child care, prevention and control of endemic diseases, routine care in hospitals and clinics, and rehabilitation. These are not matters which can be taken care of in 200 federal clinics.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance proposes that duties for the actualization of primary health care should be allocated to the three tiers of government as follows:

1. Duties of the Federal Government
i. To set up a National Health Council which will develop comprehensive national policies, strategies and plans of action to ensure good medical services, healthy living and socio-economic well being for the people.

ii. To mobilize health resources, train manpower, establish standards, recommend technologies, monitor and evaluate programmes of action, and maintain reliable statistics on the health of the nation.

iii. To vote money and other resources for the actualization of the agreed programme of action.

iv. Through NAFDAC and other inspectorate and standard organizations, to ensure that drugs manufactured in the country or imported into the country conform with medical specification and the highest international standards.

v. To mobilize FEPA and other agencies and non-governmental organizations concerned with the environment to fight pollution and minimize environmental damage to public health.

2. The Duties of State Governments
State governments, acting through their Ministries of Health inter-ministerial Health Management Boards will form national policies into operational activities. They will take responsibility.

i. To create Health Management Boards to co-ordinate all service producers including the Ministry of Health, Education and Finance; the Water Board environmental agencies, donor organizations and non-governmental organizations. Boards will also be responsible for the co-ordination of work in the local council areas.

ii. To provide funding, technical services, the monitoring of standards, the choice of technologies, lists of essential drugs which must be held stock evaluation and upgrading of services.

iii. To maintain high quality specialist hospitals, laboratories and technical services, to which referrals from communities should he made.

3. Community Health
Since primary health care is what the people do to promote and preserve their health and wellbeing, local movement council areas are the places where the real action must be.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance will encourage local councils to create Health Management Committees to set local priorities and targets to plan, implement, monitor, evaluate and upgrade health-related actions. These actions should include progmmes for the health of women, reproductive health, nutrition education, diets, hygiene and sanitation, medical care, the care of the elderly, dental health, psychiatric health, accident prevention and rehabilitation.

The entire programme of action aims at mobilizing entire communities to act purposefully for the protection of socio economic well being, health practices and medical care. Until the government of the day recognizes the need to do this and take measures to stimulate the creative response of our communities to take appropriate action, we cannot begin to think of ourselves a modern people-centred democracy.

Defence and National Security


Nigeria's leadership position in Africa is presently unquestioned. In consequence of that position, we must have an efficiently trained, soundly equipped and professionally led Armed Forces in the continent. The Community of West African States is our immediate operational corridor, in which we have to face incalculable challenges of leadership and self, defense. But we also have commitments in the African Union of which only time will tell what is entailed. From time to time, we have been summoned to play part in United Nations peace keeping in Africa and beyond. Even within our own borders, zonal tensions, religious disturbances and ethnic unrest have created a climate in which combat-readiness is a pre-requisite for peace.

The objectives of the All Progressives Grand Alliance for defense and national security is to equip the Nigerian Armed Forces to meet these challenges.

i. APGA will ensure that the Nigerian Armed Force is professionally trained, disciplined, equipped with every modern engine of war, compact in size and fully mobile. It should be easily capable of repulsing any attack on our sovereignty, our territorial integrity, our economic interest or the democratic way of life enshrined in our Constitution.

ii. Compulsory training and re-training courses will be mandatory in all services of the Armed Forces and the Nigerian Police. In this regard the Armed Forces University in Zaria the Naval University in Oron and the Police College will be funded equipped and staffed to conduct their re-training programmes.

iii. In the re-training and motivation of our defence forces, it is important that emphasis be placed upon democratic values, the defence of the Federal Constitution and the humane basis of national peace and security. The politicization of the Armed Forces has itself been a source of conflict and insecurity. This fact should be born in mind in all prograrrune for the re-training and professionalisation of the men in uniform.

iv. APGA notes the extensive role which the Nigerian Army has to play in patrolling our long and porous national borders and the dependence of modern armies on sophisticated equipment. APGA also recognizes the need for combat- readiness to deal with both internal and external emergencies. These needs should clearly be reflected in appropriate budgetary provisions.

v. APGA will also give special attention to the training and equipment of the Nigerian Air Force as the service most capable of responding immediately and decisively in military emergencies.

vi. APGA will accord priority to the role of the Nigerian Navy as the force which must guard our territorial waters against aggression, piracy and smuggling and ensure security for the increasing exploitation of gas and oil resources in the Gulf of Guinea.

vii. APGA will ensure that our defense industries are funded and re-positioned to produce the military equipment we need. In this regard the mobilization of local scientists and technologists for this purpose will greatly enlarge the scope of our Armed Forces.

viii. APGA notes as a matter of course that salaries, barracks, uniforms and personal welfare for both the Armed Forces and the Police must he upgraded immediately.

ix. With regard to internal security. APGA will put into effect the proposals for new recruitment and massive re-training for all ranks in the Police Force. Sophisticated equipment and communication for combating crime will be provided And arrangements must he made on the ground to ensure that law enforcement is community based. The Police cannot achieve anything if they do not deserve and receive the co-operation of the people.

x. APGA notes that the role of State Governors as the Chief Security Officers of their states is a relatively empty formula. APGA will therefore, request the National Security Council to clarify the idea which is clearly relevant to on-going agitations for State Police Forces.

xi. APGA re-affirms its faith in democracy, good government, good neighbourliness and across-the-board consultations between all stakeholders as the ultimate guarantees of peace and security.

xii. APGA shall pursue a policy in which the accommodation of Policemen in Barracks shall be brought to a stop. APGA believes that Policemen shall live among the communities they are trained to protect.

xiii. APGA shall explore the possibility of selling-up a special fund for the Police force.

Justice and the Judiciary


The policies of the All Progressives Grand Alliance on Justice and the Judiciary will be based upon the following cardinal principles.

i. Defence of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the supreme law which prescribes a limit to the exercise of power by all persons and institutions;

ii. Maintenance of the independence of the Judiciary and the promotion of the principle of the separation of powers as enshrined in the constitution;

iii. The equality before the law of all persons resident in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the insistence that justice, equity, due process, human rights, and social justice should be available to all.

It is generally admitted that Nigeria has a brilliant Bar. But the administration of justice has often left much to be desired. The infrastructure of unventilated old court buildings, far too few in number and under-equipped in facilities; poor transport, manual transcription of evidence, and poor support services have not helped speedy administration of justice. And there is an attitude, especially with regard to criminal cases, that our treatment of offenders is not a matter of tremendous importance.

In addition, the pay and conditions of service of judicial officers are not sufficiently competitive as to attract star preformers and ambitious advocates to the bench. Appointments have often been treated as benefactions distributed on the basis of favouritism, political influence and a mistaken interpretation of the Federal Character rule. Not surprisingly, legal scholarship, firmness of character, discipline, integrity and exemplary character have been on the decline among magistrates and judges. Corruption has been authoritatively commented on notably by the Justice Kayode Eso Reports. It is generally believed that Federal and State executives are able to exert undue influence in the course of justice. At the same time, the standard of legal education has been falling with devastating consequences especially in the lower ranks of the bench.

To redress these situations. The All Progressives Grand Alliance will implement the following policies:

i. APGA will take every step to safeguard the independence of the judiciary and the Judicial Service Commission in the appointment, conditions of service, discipline, and tenure of judicial officers. It is important to ensure that the judiciary is extricated from executive influence and that, as far as possible judges, are insulated from the pressure of the Executive through such matters as their housing, courtrooms, transportation, personal security and welfare. The budget of the Judiciary will continue to be funded from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

ii. Legal qualifications will he important yardstick in all legal recruitments made under the APGA government. Second Class Honours at the LL.B will be the minimum acceptable certificate and preference will be given to lawyers who have postgraduate qualifications or have displayed scholarship through publications and conference papers. Continuing legal education for judges will he promoted In this regard the work of the National judicial Institute will be encouraged and greatly increased.

iii. The scrutiny of the moral character and background of prospective appointees to the bench and to other judicial offices will he undertaken as a regular routine. Laws which give corrupt judges any form of immunity from prosecution or restrict in any way the full application of the law to them will he abolished. The present government is already moving in this direction.

iv. The remuneration and conditions of service of judicial officers must he raised to make the judiciary attractive to brilliant and ambitious members of the Bar. It is of the utmost importance that the best available talent should enter the services and that adequate retirement benefits be guaranteed to minimize temptation.

v. APGA will greatly increase the number of judges and magistrates, undertake the building of new court houses, and upgrade support systems in order to expedite the hearing of cases. The enormous delays which occur presently form the basis of the saying that justice delayed is justice denied.

vi. APGA will introduce vocational training within the prison system and promote the rehabilitation of released prisoners partly on the basis of humane consideration and partly to minimize recidivism in Nigerian prisons.

vii. A highly professionalized Police Force that is adequately remunerated and decentralized in matters of safety of live and property would be put in place by APGA. APGA believes that an effective police force is a highly desirable requirement for an effective judiciary.

A New Information Charter


An open society is a precondition for good, accountable and transparent government. It is a well-known fact in the United States of America from where we borrowed the presidential system, that the freedom of the press, as it is known today, derives from the belief of the founding fathers that a free press is essential for the protection of democracy. The need was to spread information so that intelligent democratic government would be possible. Had the founding fathers believed that the end of democracy could be been served by the control of the press or the suppression of information, they would have so provided.

A free press is essential to the building of a modem democratic state. Without it, autocracy becomes the norm and democracy becomes impossible. And it must be understood that the freedom of the press is not a privilege of the publisher or the editor or journalist, but rather the fundamental right of the people to know how they are governed. This right, as advocated by APGA, goes with responsibility.

The essential characteristic of a dictatorship or an authoritarian government is that its action cannot be questioned or enquired into. The business of government is conducted in secrecy without the governed making any input.

Public expenditure pattern is arbitrarily determined by a few person acting in secret. This not only accounts for the high level of wastage of resources in government, it is a sure recipe for monumental corruption that is the hallmark of our government today.

The conduct of an APGA government will be open. The Presidency will be democratized and accountable to the Nigerian people at all times. APGA will, therefore, facilitate the passing of an Access to Information Act, which will guarantee the constitutional rights of Nigerians to know exactly how they are governed. APGA will, therefore. Introduce the following measures:

i. The Official Secret Act and all similar laws will be abrogated and replaced with an Access to Information Act. The Act will specify the rights and obligations of the press in accessing information without official restrictions.

ii. All documents that do not have national security implications will be declassified.

iii. Assets declarations will be publicly accessible.

iv. Civil servants will no longer be gagged from giving information as required.

v. The laws of defamation and libel will be reviewed in line with the Access to Information Act.

vi. The ownership of television stations, radio stations, newspapers, news magazines, and other news media will be fully deregulated and subject to minimum registration fees in order to give full freedom of information to the people.

vii. Restrictions on the publication of certain classes of official news, such as election results from polling stations and collating stations will be lifted in the interest of transparency
.

The APGA Freedom of Information Charter will protect our democracy from abuse and corruption so that the wealth of the nation can be used for the development of the country for the benefit of the masses.

Energy


Nigeria is the sixth largest oil producer in the world. With an OPEC quota of 2.21 million barrels (worth = $17.36 million) per day, we export 1.10 million barrels (57%), refine 0.5 million barrels (27%) for domestic use, and keep 0.53 million barrels (27.3%) on strategic reserve. In 2000 and 2001, exploration in the rich Benin embankment and the deep continental shelf opened up vast new deposits which will place the Nigerian oil industry in an entirely new league. The prospects for the future are promising.

But the Nigerian oil experience has been dogged by unfathomable difficulties. Host communities in the Niger Delta who have never been properly consulted have been up in arms threatening at every turn to stop operations by boarding rigs or by taking workers as hostages. In 2000, the NNPC reported 2,895 cases of the vandalisation of pipelines and other installations of which 6 episodes led to fires in which about a thousand lives were lost. Moreover, the Federal Revenue Mobilization Team in the same year reported revenue losses of N260 billion arising from fraudulent accounting by oil companies and illegal bunkering. In the same year too, the NNPC itself was unable to keep its refineries in operation for a total of 120 days. The experience of Nigerian motorists queuing at petrol filling stations do not need to be recounted. It is quite clear that we have not come close to energy security as far as petrol is concerned.

One of the key problems which afflicts every aspects of our lives Mt our private homes as well as in our businesses is the lack of a national energy policy which sets out national targets, announces programmes of action with the timing for its different segments, indicates what contributions are expected from petroleum, gas, coal and hydroelectricity and spells out what will be done by public agencies and what contributions are expected from the private sector. The NNPC apparently just proceeded, and more often failed to proceed, to give us fuel upon an unprogrammed and ad hoc basis.

In the gas sector which is still undergoing development, the picture is different. So abundant are the resources that it has been said that Nigeria is a gas producing country which happens to have some petroleum. The first two gas trains are now working. Others are to follow. Already some local industries are re-tooling for the use of gas as their production fuel. It may well be that gas is what we need to lift us from present adversity to prosperity.

With regards to coal, it is estimated that our reserves covering thirteen of the old nineteen states of the federation wm Bauchi to Kogi and Imo States, is about 4750 million metric tonnes. Much of this buried wealth lies waiting for a government that will realise its true possibilities both for domestic energy generation and for export revenue. The fact is that coal fuels 50% of the power generated in the United States of America and 80% of the power generated in India and China.

A government of the All Progressives Grand Alliance will try to realise the following objectives with regard to energy:

i. APGA will initiate a National Energy Policy based upon our proven resources and our need for energy security. It will spell out the roles required for petroleum, gas, coal, hydroelectricity, solar power, nuclear power and any other sources. It will lay the ground rules for indigenous participation in the sector and the rules for foreign investors. It will provide guidelines for energy conservation and energy efficiency, and indicate what must be done or not be done to protect the environment in spirit of the Kyoto Protocol. It will also set targets for future expansion to meet the unfolding needs of the future.

ii. APGA will cooperate with the programme of continuing exploration of our energy resources and empower the private sector to increase the exploitation of new discoveries.

iii. APGA will explore avenues for the exploitation of our coal deposits to increase energy supply. In this regard, the conversion of our coal to a standard required in the production of steel will be put into effect. The production of smokeless coke for domestic use will also be implemented to avoid continued deforestation.

iv. It is quite clear that apart from large power stations, we need a vast number of subsidiary stations. Small hydroelectric systems, small gas-fired turbines, coal stations like Oji, and private sector outfits all of which will contribute to material sufficiency.

v. APGA recognises that the NNPC and its subsidiaries were for the most part unable to do their duty. They failed to create reasonable agreement with their host communities in the Niger Delta or to monitor the activities of their technical partners. They did not satisfy the domestic need for energy or keep a strict account of the revenue due to Government. Their facilities were open to vandalization at all times and their dealers frequently delivered the supplies they collected either to bunkerers or across the Nigerian border. APGA is, therefore, of the opinion that what we need now is a small professional agency charged with regulatory and inspectorate duties only and having no responsibility for production or marketing.

vi. It follows that prospecting refining, lifting and marketing will be private sector operations. However, Nigerian businesses and the Nigerian public must be guaranteed a share in these commercial operations.

vii. Since the first oil operations started at Oloibiri in 1951, Nigeria has produced a large number of persons who have undoubted expertise in every aspect of the oil industry. It is clear that the process of operational indigenisation can now be insisted upon by government. The same principle applies in the coal industry and hydroelectric power generation.

viii. Nigerian oil and gas industries will, however, not be substantially indigenous until our universities have developed academic and industrial attachment programmes capable of training our managers in all aspects of prospecting, extracting, refining, lifting and marketing. It is upon this new cadre of trained manpower that the national energy security will depend.

Agriculture and Rural Life


Nigerian governments have always understood the dangers of our being unable to feed ourselves. The farm settlements of the 1950s, Operation Feed the Nation (1976-79), the Green Revolution (1979- 83), River Basin Development Authorities (1979- 83) and Directorate of Food and Rural Infrastructure (1985-93) are only some of the steps taken by governments at various times to ensure that we can feed ourselves adequately and cheaply. Agricultural research stations have been in existence from colonial times in Samaru in Zaria. Moore Plantation in Ibadan, Umudike in Umuahia and elsewhere. From the late ‘90s, mandatory quotas of bank credit were being set aside for agricultural loans. In the Second Republic the CBN directed banks to begin rural banking to extend the benefits of saving and credit to farming communities. Today many new plans are on the table.

But all these paper plans have achieved little or nothing. Massive government funds for agricultural improvements in the past disappeared into the pockets of the rich. Peasant farmers had no collateral to benefit from banking credit. Their businesses were also too small and their imagination too limited for them to approach the banks. Results from research stations did not reach them, as they did not read scientific journals. Meanwhile they lost 20% of their harvest to weevils, mealie bugs and other pests and another 40% to poor storage, poor handling, and poor sales management.

Yet the farmers who produce cassava, yams, beans, rice, millet, guinea com, tomatoes, onions and carrots and the herdsmen who pasture cattles, sheep and goats are the people who feed the nation. They give as much to the national economy as civil servants and teachers. They are entitled to everything we can do to promote their work.

To reform agriculture, attain food security, and revitalise rural life, the All Progressives Grand Alliance will take the following measures.

i. APGA will empower local government councils as the third tier of government to lake responsibility for agricul-ture, primary education, primary health etc.

ii. To re-invigorate rural life, present efforts to improve rural roads, rural water supply, rural electricity and rural banking will be intensified.

iii. Recognition, encouragement and marching grants will be given to community organisations working on community projects.

iv. Local government councils will mobilize carefully structured pools of experts within their services to deal with problems of forestry, sheep and cattle herding, soil maintenance, the upgrading of farm techniques, the distribution of improved seeds, the use of fertilizers and pesticides, farm produce storage and transportation and marketing, and the organisation of cooperatives.

v. In the programme for industrialization, priority should be given to the manufacture of farm equipment since the mechanization of peasant farms cannot take place with imported dollar-denominated equipment.

vi. To give rural life its rightful place in the mainstream of our economic credit must be made available to agriculture. Until an appropriate part of the wealth of the nation is available for food production, our agriculture will remain backward. At the same time the mechanization of farming, the advance to agro-based industries, the produc-tion of genetically modified foods and the use of even low-level technology in our farms will not occur. APGA will ensure that studies which are needed to solve the problems of funding peasant agriculture are undertaken as a matter of national priority.

vii. In local government areas in the deep North where water scarcity is an abiding problem, comprehensive programmes of water management embracing river basins, dams, bore-hole construction, underground water utilization and small-scale irrigation will be undertaken with the support of the federal government for the benefit of farmers, herdsmen and the people as a whole.
It is, however, recognized that rural development is the responsibility of local government councils and that each council appropriately funded and empowered will accept the challenge of meeting its unique needs in its own unique way.

The Economy


With swarms of beggars on our streets and destitution in millions of homes, Nigeria is a very poor country indeed. Three out of every four Nigerians live below the international poverty line of US$2.00 per day. Half of our children are malnourished and half also are not enrolled in school. Most adults are unemployed; and the average expectation of life is just fifty years. These surely are cruel realities which any political party intending to grapple with the problems of our national life must face.

The problems of the Nigerian economy are not resource-related. In terms of endowment, we are exceptionally rich. Even in terms of current income which is estimated at the beginning of the year to be N1.15 trillion, we should be comfortable. The federally collectable revenue will certainly double in a few years time as petroleum sales rise and new gas trains are commissioned.

Our main problem is that the Nigerian economy (and indeed the Nigerian experience itself) have been shaped by dictatorships both military and civilian. To those who have controlled the nation, what mattered most were their own security, the benefits they passed on to their support base and the creation of a national buffer of clients, hangers-on, flatterers and secondary looters. The result was the cruel, corrupt and inefficient prebendiary system which we call the Nigerian state. Nobody bothered about the people as the raison d’etre of government nor about the work and welfare of the people as the ultimate wealth of the nation.

These difficulties will surely come to an end as the system is truly democratized.

The goal of the All Progressive Grand Alliance is to build democratic foundations for economic growth and development. At the core of that foundation will be the diversification of our mono-cultural lifeline through the development of solid minerals, manufacturing for export to the West African sub-region and agriculture for food sufficiency. To achieve these objectives, it will be important to maintain macroeconomic stability in order to encourage long term planning and foreign investment.

APGA will work for the creation of a national economy that is people-centred and private-sector-driven. The role of government will be essentially to facilitate and umpire the process of developing agreed national aims and objectives and thereafter to manage fiscal and monetary policies well enough to raise our global competitiveness.

APGA recognizes that no effort has yet been made to reach national agreement on many important issues.

i. The precise nature of the linkage between the Nigerian economy and the world economy is a matter of deep misunderstanding between the Federal Government, the National Assembly, the Manufacturers Associations, the Trade Union Congress, the intellectual community and other stakeholders.

ii. Although it is clear that the economy should be restructured, it is by no means agreed that the key instruments for that restructuring should, without considerable modifications, be deregulations, privatisation, trade liberalisation, globalisation, etc. Opinion from different parts of the Federation differs on this point and any unilateral action taken now runs the risk of being reversed latter.

iii. There is need to reach agreement about the management of the Federation Account. The main source of funds for national development is the revenue from petroleum which is subject to violent fluctuations. In good times, there is a problem of making provisions for the rainy day just as there is a problem of controlling the amount of cash which should go into circulation at any given time. But apparently there has been no discussion of these issues between the Federal Government, the state government and local government councils.

The failure to seek a reconciliation of opinions on the management of the Federal Account, budgeting and economic reconstruction shows the poverty of the democratic culture which we have at the present time.

APGA will take the following measures to change the economic life of the nation:

i. It will establish (or reinvigorate) an Inter- Governmental Economic Council charged with responsibility for reconciling opinions on all matters of economic policy and procedure. The Presidency, the National Assembly, State Governments, the business community, the Trade Union Congress, other stakeholders and resource persons will be members of the Council; and it is not the intention that any governmental institution will be in a position to impose its will upon the others.

ii. APGA will reduce the Rediscount Rate and the Interest Rate in order to provide opportunities to business for long-term credit to speed up the expansion of business and employment opportunities.

iii. APGA will insist upon a stricter enforcement of foreign exchange controls with a view to stabilizing the purchasing power of the Naira and making forward planning for businesses more effective.

iv. APGA will intensify the effort to re-build the social and economic infrastructure, most notably roads. Telecommunications, electric power and water supply. Apart from the general enhancement of life, the rehabilitation of utilities will reduce the cost of doing business and contribute to economic expansion.

v. APGA will re-assess the guideline for venture capital and industrial credit with the object of making the banking sector play a more constructive role in the economy.

vi. To fight inflation and promote financial discipline in the system. APGA will insist that all governments shall balance their budgets and desist from extra-budgetary expenditure.

The programme of privatisation and bringing foreign capital into power generation, telecommunications, water supply, the oil and gas industries and petrochemicals will certainly have far-reaching consequences in the national economy. But APGA believes that equal emphasis should be placed on small-scale enterprises, the rural economy and the informal sector. The party will make every effort, through government -funded research, pilot schemes, easier bank credit and technical assistance, to breathe new life into the work and welfare of the people.

The Reform of the Civil Service


The Nigerian Civil Service has not served the Nigerian people in the last twenty five years. Government secretariats and ministries have, of course, been busy as usual. But the essential public functions for which the Service was set up have virtually ceased. Public light and water are today still in such short supply that every industry, indeed every household, has still to provide its own utilities. Telephones were dysfunctional for two decades until the coming of the GSM. The ports are still choked with goods and corruption. The police, as the investigation of the murder of the Justice Minister has demonstrated, cannot do their job. Teachers, much abused, underpaid, or not paid at all, are more often out on strike than in the classroom. And public hospitals, under-funded, understaffed, under-equipped and chronically short of drugs, are only fit for the destitute. The failure of public service is not, however, simply the result of negligence on the part of civil servants. Even more, it is a sign of terminal distress in government itself. To re-invent the Civil Service, we have to re-invent the Nigerian government as well.

The Challenges of Independence
The colonial Civil Service was a small, privileged and powerful elite. Its role was essentially to keep public order, promote trade with the home country, collect taxes and look after its staff. It did exceptionally well in these limited duties.

But with independence, the very conception of government changed. There was an explosion of programmes and of personnel. Public servants gradually began to take charge of every aspect of life and to take decision about forestry, higher education, and mortgage banking, urban housing, the management of exchange rates and interest rates, petroleum exploration and refining, air traffic control, television broadcasting, money laundering etc. In other words, they managed not only the Nigerian economy but Nigerian life as well.

The young men and women who manned our Civil Service could not have dealt with all these difficult challenges. Where could they have learnt the multifarious skills needed to 1anage the fevers and regulate the heartbeat of a modem state? Moreover, there were other exorbitant demands made upon them. For in addition to the puzzles of the economic and social order, they faced the problem of the ethnic and religious pluralism of the Nigerian nation. Admittedly this was a problem for politicians. But political leadership is only as good as the supporting Civil Service makes it. Similarly, the Civil Service can only deliver public service if it is supported by the political leadership.

The failure of the Nigerian Civil Service was mainly the result of the failure of support from national leaders. The politicians who came to power in the 1960s did not want civil servants to tell rules, regulations and law. They wanted subordinates and ethnic brothers. If a district officer or an assistant secretary insisted too much on the regulations, he could be changed instantly. To survive in such a situation, a civil servant did not have to serve the public. He only had to serve his political boss. He did not need brains or devotion to duty. He needed political connections and servility.

Under the military, the situation was even worse, for military men compounded the indiscipline and greed of their civilian predecessors. The purges of 1976 and 1983 were traumas which ended the age of innocence in the civil service. The sackings swept away some dead wood and some of the finest pillars of the establishments too. They also swept away the very idea of tenure, fair hearing and institutional order. From then on, it did not really matter what you could do. What counted was whom you knew and how much you saved or stole.

It is clear what we as a nation, should do now to change the situation. We are moving into an astonishing new world of the genomics, the computer revolution, laser guidance, global investment flows and biotechnology. With the on-going reduction in the scope and conception of government, the Nigerian Civil Service will necessarily be a small elite, but it must be world class in quality. To compete effectively in the new global market place, the managers and regulators of our society must be equipped with every contemporary skills Six reforms are envisaged.

1. Professionalisation
APGA will take steps to create a professional Civil Service the entrance into which is based upon a competitive examination. The British and Indian civil service examinations which are open to holders of Upper Second Class degree certificates are models in this regard. Every branch of the Service will be manned by professionals whose skills will be constantly upgraded. The Service will be numerically very small as its roles will be primarily regulatory.

2. Protection from Interference
APGA will ensure that the Nigerian Civil Service is safeguarded as a democratic institution and protected from political interference in recruitment, promotion and discipline. The habit of appointing special taskforces outside the regular service to take charge of important projects will be discontinued as a practice which undermines the authority of the Civil Service and blunts its competitive cutting edge.

3. A Code of Conduct
APGA will introduce a revised and updated General Orders applicable to all public servants from the Presidency, the Cabinet and the National Assembly right down to local government councils. The do s and don is of Nigerian public service must be fully spelt out to promote discipline order and probity in the Service.

4. Improved Conditions of Service
Remuneration and security in the Civil Service will be vastly expanded to make careers in the Service attractive to the brightest and best people in the nation. A successful civil servant ought surely to be as well rewarded as a successful banker.

5. Internal Surveillance
A mechanism within the Civil Service will be established for monitoring and policing compliance with both the ethnical and the procedural codes of the General Order.

6. Transparency
At the same time, APGA will insist that the Nigerian public and the media should have freedom of information to know in detail what government and its agents are doing in the name of the people. Without such unfettered access to information, the freedom of the press is a sham and there can be no real public accountability. At the moment the impression is that the actions of government are the private affairs of senior public officials.

The Civil Service is the executive arm of government and until it is re-vitalized government itself can achieve nothing.

Education


Education is perhaps the most important formative factor in the life of a nation. As the education is, so is the nation bound to be.

Yet successive Nigerian governments have allowed our educational system to come very close to destruction. At one level the collapse is the result of poor funding. How this gradual impoverishment began can easily be shown in the case of government subvention to universities. In 1976, the universities with a total enrollment of 46.499 students received N4.036.00 for the education of each student. The allocation fell sharply to just below half that figure (N2, 007.00) six years later in 1982: then to about a quarter (N862.00) in 1985 and to one tenth (N409.00) in 1986. More recently, the Federal Government voted 11% of the national budget to education in 1997, 8.9% in 2000, and 5.9% in 2002. It is evident, therefore, that the progressive impoverishment of education still continues. At the moment, the Federal Government owes federal universities, according to ASUU, N79.82 billion out of allocations agreed for 2001 and 2002. In the whole West Africa sub-region, no other government has treated education so badly.

It is no wonder then that school buildings, laboratories, hostels, libraries, bookshops, electricity, water supply and general sanitation in our educational institutions are in a sorry state. Matters have not been helped, unfortunately, by poor accounting control especially in universities with consequent misapplication and misappropriation of funds.

The Problems of Teachers and Students
At the same time, it has to be admitted that teachers at all levels have been badly treated. As a profession they fell steeply in incomes and social esteem as a result of recent social changes. While at independence they were honoured as an intellectual elite, they are today among the wretched of the earth whose wages do not get paid whenever money is in short supply. A Nigerian university lecturer comparing himself today with a British counterpart whose training is exactly equivalent to his own would find that he earns less than a hundredth of the income of the foreign colleague. The result of this deprivation is the so called brain drain, a massive exodus of our best-trained persons to the United States and United Kingdom. Among those left behind, there is resentment and anger which boils over into anti-government rhetoric, strikes and institutional closure on the slightest provocation.

Students too have been badly treated. It is not just that the infrastructures for their education are in ruin at all levels and that textbooks, and even chalks, are difficult to find. There is the added frustration that there are no jobs even for those who in defiance of impossible conditions manage to obtain good certificates. Graduate destitution in the last twenty years has been indeed scandalous. In the face of such discouragement the weaker undergraduates turn their attention, wrongly but quite understandably, to the thrills of cult warfare and other dissipations. We have to agree that several generations of Nigerian youths have been destroyed by these educational policies.

A Basic Misconception
It is clear what has gone wrong in the last twenty years. The control of educational funding and educational decision-making were centralized in the hands of military men who did not really care. Their decision did not merely impact, as they thought, on the classroom and the teacher. They impacted also on the development of the adaptive skills of the nation, on our competitiveness in a fast-moving global market place, on the propagation and growth of our humanity and the maintenance of the sanity of our world. So important is education that it ought to be as of right the first charge on the income of the nation.

APGA will take the following measures to ensure that the damage done by two decades of neglect are put right.

i. New Sources of Funding
APGA will make sure that enough money is provided for an upgraded national education which should be free at all levels. We will comply with UNESCO guidelines on national budgetary allocation to education and this will make sufficient money available to provide training for our economic, technological and human needs in the 21st century. Apparently N50 billion have been lost from the reserves revenue accumulated since 1993 in the Educational Tax Fund. But contributions from that source 'will continue to flow. There will also be contributions from private entrepreneurs and voluntary agencies who are already building schools at every level, creches, nurseries, primary hoarding schools, international secondary schools and even private universities. At the highest level, industries and professions will pay for research projects, research professorships, and special institutions. Some help will also come from the international community which has already indicated their readiness to contribute to the success of the Universal Basic Education Scheme.

ii. Federal Responsibilities
In accordance with the decision reached at the Education Summit in 1997, the function of Federal Government should in the future be limited to the following:
(a) To define the philosophy of national education, create a programme of action for its realization and establish inspectorates to monitor implementation;
(b) To set up, in consultation with professional teachers associations, university governing councils, boards of trustees and management committee which will run educational institutions.
(c) To provide adequate funding and set up criteria for fund disbursement through organs like the National Universities Commission, the National Council of Technical Education, the National Commissions for Colleges of Education etc;
(d) To oversee international cooperation in education; and;
(e) To coordinate national examination as necessary.

iii. Tertiary Education
At the tertiary level, APGA will ensure that there is a democratic variety of institutions. Fortunately the Federal Government has already enacted a law to promote decentralization and autonomy in polytechnics, colleges of education and universities. These institutions will become more creative and vibrant when they are no longer arms of the public service. Churches, learned professions, special interest groups, state government and private entrepreneurs will compete with each other for a share in educational initiative. In time, city universities will emerge to provide the special needs in research and techniques for the particular business of such large centres as Kaduna, Kano, Onitsha and Aba. This is the way forward in the highly competitive world of the twentieth century.

iv. The Duties of State Government
(a) The Training and Motivation of Teachers
As a pre-condition for the success of all educational reforms, APGA will pay special attention to the education, re-education and the professional re-awakening of teachers. If staff of the right calibre, in sufficient numbers and with the right motivation, are not present in the educational system, nothing else will succeed. The 1977 National Guidelines for Education emphasized the importance of teacher training to deal with the ambitious plan which was made at that time for scientific technological and business education. Now the need for capacity building and the restoration of morale are evident in every field of study. In primary schools and secondary schools, teachers must be made to appreciate once again the importance and the dignity of their calling by the professionalisation of their vocation. Their salaries and conditions of service must be made attractive. In polytechnics, colleges of education and universities, training and re-training programmes will give appropriate weight to the re-stocking and upgrading of libraries, to internet access and staff exchange with overseas instructions. When teachers are well paid and rightly motivated, they will take it upon themselves to ensure that what they teach is at the growing point of knowledge, that their academic programmes are useful in the employment market and that they communicate that joy in learning which should wean their students away from the mumbo Jumbo of cults.

(b) Secondary School Programmes
The programme for secondary education should emphasize the national objective of modern training for science, technology, business and humane values are carefully sustained. State Education Commissions, secondary school boards, voluntary agencies and professional bodies will ensure that there is diversity of choice available for training in trade centres, technical secondary schools, grammar schools, schools for catering, schools of fashion etc; and that there is equitable distribution of opportunities throughout the state. It is important that internationally reputable standards of education are maintained. Decentralisation of duties in secondary education will permit states to deal with their 5pecial problems. In this regard, the

Educational Summit of Northern Nigerian states which met ill April drew attention to the lack of encouragement and lack of facilities at the secondary education level in the zone. APGA will offer that national help to deal with such local problems.


v. Local Movement Councils
APGA will uphold the constitutional responsibility of Local Government Councils for primary school education. School administration will, however, be in the hands of professional school boards which will be answerable to Parent/Teachers Associations.
In this way, local communities will take charge of the quality of education given to their children. They will be in a position to raise funds to improve the quality of infrastructure of the standard of teaching, and of the maintenance of the grounds. They could provide staff quarters, pay for scholarship programmes, monitor the discipline of staff and pupils, and make arrangements for sports and recreation.
These are very grave responsibilities and the entire structure of national education right up to the university level rests upon them. The quality of national life also depends upon these early beginnings. It is, however, appropriate that parents should be called upon to take this responsibility. At the local council level, education should be seen as an inclusive community effort in which families, religious groups, town development unions, women groups and other non-governmental organizations work together in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluating programmes of action which they themselves initiate for the uplifting of the life of the new generation.

In the thirty years from 1950 to 1980, the newly released energies of the Nigerian peoples surged forward in an unprecedented demand for academic and professional education. The achievements of those vintage years were felt in every field. It was evident that doctors, engineers, teachers, diplomats, historian novelists and public servants trained in Nigeria in those years were equal to the very best in the world. We can repeat these achievements and even go beyond them if only we will again broaden the scope of the educational effort to include all our communities, greatly increase the public funding for education and ensure that both staff and students appreciate the formative importance of the work in which they are engaged.

Fundamental Principles



THE ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE is committed to the following fundamental principles whether it is in government or not in government:

i. National Unity
It will protect the national unity, territorial integrity and sovereign independence of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

ii. A Democratic Order
It will uphold the will of the people of the Federal Republic as the only source of political power and hold the Constitution of the Federal Republic in honour as the supreme law of the land. It will also enforce the limits prescribed by law on executive and legislative power, promote the fundamental freedoms of all Nigerians and insist on openness and transparency in all organs of government.

iii. True Federalism
It will uphold the principles of true federalism as the constitutional framework in which a plural and diverse nation like Nigeria can keep its unity while promoting the different interests of its different peoples.

iv. Political Pluralism
It will actively promote the diversity and pluralism of the nation as sources of strength. Every state, ethnic group, religion, culture, class, profession and interest groups must be empowered to reach its highest potential. In this regard, APGA believes that a Nigerian is a good citizen if he is a devoted member of his community, ethnic group or state.

v. A New Role for Government
In compliance with the fundamental principle and directive objectives of state policy emphasized again and again in the Federal Constitution, APGA will do its utmost to change the content of our political culture. It believes that government is a servant of the people. Our political culture must therefore, change to emphasize public service, integrity, merit, justice, consultation, team spirit, transparency and tolerance. To achieve these goals, APGA will impose a mandatory code of conduct on all public office holders.

vi. The Role of the Party
APGA itself will be an instrument of the people for mobilizing diverse opinions, ensuring that nobody is left out in the cold, debating differences, and enunciating people-centered policies. The failure of the great promise of Nigeria in the past has been largely the result of the seizure of government by partisan interest groups.

vii. The Livelihood of the People
It will promote deregulation, privatizations and globalization as policies necessary for the modernization of the economy. At the same time, it will put in place a programme of domestic returns to raise the quality of life of the common people and to ensure that all Nigerians have access to the prosperity and increased human scope of the 21st century.

viii. Commitment to the Black World
It will employ every means, diplomatic, political, economic, social and cultural to advance the image of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the spiritual home of the black peoples of the world.
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Introduction

Fifty years ago we were immensely proud of our country. Our leaders in those early years were men of true distinction fully able, like their great contemporaries Kenyatta, Luthuli, Nehru and Sukarno, to do battle against foreign rule. Nigerians were united, focused and vigilant. The economy was in good shape with its hard currency earnings from cocoa, groundnuts, palm produce and tin. In the educational upsurge of the 1940’s and 1950’s, there were already the beginnings of an all-round social transfiguration.

A Failed State
But Nigeria today is a failed state. The democratic experiment which started with independence in 1960 was cut short soon afterwards by a revolt of dissatisfied soldiers. And in more than thirty years of successive military seizures of the state, we lost our way. The civilian search for a shared public purpose was succeeded by a culture of vulgar assertion, institutional violence and the collapse of community values. The healing democratic dialogue between zones, states, and different ethnic groups ceased while tensions and hostilities mounted. A crisis of unfulfilled expectations was compounded by a crisis of rising underdevelopment. The economic infrastructure broke down.

Gradually unemployment entered every household even among the skilled and well qualified. The cities became slums of deprivation and crime. Robbers, beggars’ and lunatics crowded the streets. And today young Nigerians have nothing better to dream of than “to check out” to become night guards, street cleaners, drug mules and prostitutes in Italy and the United States.

Poor Leadership
It is generally agreed that the failure of the Nigerian state is primarily the result of a failure of leadership. The Balewa government of the First Republic gave up the objective of creating a national consensus after a couple of years. In doing so, it provoked the regional conflicts which led to the Westen1 crisis of 1965 and the civil war. The military government of General Yakubu Gowon had enough resources after the OPEC revolution to modernize the Nigeria economy. But it lacked both the vision and the savoir-faire to do so. Under successive military rulers, the Nigerian state failed to find a unity of purpose in which the supreme military command, the states, private business, financial institutions, the professions and local communities could work together on an agreed blueprint of national development.

Corruption in High Places
The failure of Nigerian leadership was not, however, just a matter of what it did not do. What it actually did was even more deplorable. The NPN government of the Second Republic was described by a team of the American scholars as a “prebendiary” regime. This is to say that that government was organized to provide unearned incomes for its leaders and their hangers on. Under the military, the same corrupt system was extended beyond those who held public office: cash “settlement” was given to agents, cronies, stooges and flatterers as well as to dangerous opponents. By the time of General Sani Abacha, moral degeneration had gone far beyond mere financial improprieties. The men in power were ready to imprison, mutilate or murder anyone who disputed the absoluteness of their right to indulge their lusts. The irony of the Nigerian situation was that leaders stole billions of dollars and became ship owners and international financiers while the nation over which they presided became bankrupt. The provocation under which the people lived was unbearable.

Beginning Again
Two years ago, we made a new democratic beginning. The Federal Government today is, in effect, a national government. General Abacha’s murder squads have been disgraced. The Justice Oputa Panel has tried to heal some of our wounds with bitter doses of the truth about how we were misgoverned. Elected men and women now exercise authority in all states and local government councils.

But nothing has really changed. Conflict and confusion in the political system have, in fact, increased. There are bitter disagreements about the Federal Constitution and about the constitutional limits in the power of the Presidency, the National Assembly, state assemblies and state governments: and these disputes are before the courts. In almost all organs of the governing party, there is disorder and fictionalization. All three registered political parties seem perilously close to a break-up. In every part of the country, there is deep frustration and a new tone of menace arising from perceived inequalities in the allocation of power and resources. Deregulation and privatization in the economy, a rapidly depreciating naira, a rising cost of living and the retrenchment of workers keep the relationship between government and the people permanently on the boil. Over the last two years, we have had in fact more trade disputes and violent strikes than we ever had before. Instead of finding new remedies to the problems facing the nation, we have apparently only aggravated the old problems.

A Covenant with the People
Surely we cannot go on in this way. Nigeria is potentially a very rich country. From petroleum, we earn more than $50 million a day. Our gas reserves, still to be fully explored, can produce even higher returns. Opportunities in agriculture and solid minerals still lie neglected. We can certainly change our situation. Nigerians have the creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit to compete effectively with anybody in the world. What holds us back are the lack of leadership, the mismanagement of men and resources, an uncreative response to the diversity of our communities and a lack of vision of what we can do in the world.

In the following manifesto, the ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE sets out its agenda for the reform of our leadership, politics, economy and civil society. We have no doubt at all that our country can be transformed. We offer this manifesto as a covenant between the All Progressives Grand Alliance and the people of Nigeria and as a binding oath of what we will do if the nation gives us its support.