African Democratic Congress (ADC) said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had initiated “needless vicious policies” under President Bola Tinubu, which had exposed Nigerians to untold hardship and poverty.
National Chairman of ADC and former Senate President, Senator David Mark, made the allega-tion on Monday in Abuja.
Mark regretted that while the APC government continued to aggravate citizen’s tax burdens, insecurity relentlessly disrupted their social and economic lives.
Mark spoke while inaugurating a 50-member Policy and Manifesto Committee for ADC at its headquarters in Abuja.
The committee, which comprised several eminent Nigerians, had former APC National Chairman and erstwhile Governor of Edo State, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, as Chairman.
The former senate president stated, “Nigerians are suffering today, perhaps more than any other time in our history. Poverty stares us in the face.
“Yes, poverty and hardship have always existed but the hardship and poverty that Nigerians are experiencing under the APC administration has gotten worse.
“This situation has been brought about and compounded by government needlessly vicious policies. What Nigerians are, therefore, desperately looking for are credible alternative ideas, actions and policies.
“They want policies that would improve their lives today and lay a solid foundation on which they can improve their future. They want policies that show compassion.
“Nigerians are not looking for clever arguments. They want policies and actions that show that government understands what they are going through and is prepared to act with clarity, courage and most importantly with compassion.
“This is what the African Democratic Congress represents, a party that puts the people first.”
The ADC national chairman made it clear that a country that could not secure its people will not be able to grow the economy, no matter how impressive its plans appeared on paper.
He stressed that Nigeria did not need rhetoric, “She needs honest thinking and workable solutions. Across the country, families are working harder and earning lesser and lesser. Food prices rise faster than wages, salaries and incomes can cope.
“Power supply remains epileptic even as tariffs increase astronomically. Strangely, the APC government continue to aggravate the citizen’s tax burdens. Insecurity continues to disrupt the peoples social and economic.”
Mark stressed that Nigerians were not looking for who to blame for their suffering as they already knew who was responsible.
According to him, “They (Nigerians) are looking for who will ease the pains. They want real, practical solutions that address the challenges of today, not policies that expect them to continue to give and give and give.
“One thing I have noticed over the years and I am sure most of you can attest to is that Nigeria does not suffer from shortage of ideas. What we suffer from is a failure to connect ideas to reality. Too often, policy in this country has been an academic exercise detached from the very people it is meant to serve.
“Documents are produced, committees are set up, reports are written, white papers are produced, yet nothing changes in the lives of the people which is what matters most.”
Marked stated, “Policy is not about sounding intelligent. It is not about volume or complexity. You must resist the temptation to treat symptoms while ignoring causes.
‘’You must think outside of the box. You must ask hard questions about why things are not working in this country. This is the burden before you.
“In recent years, government has continued to regale us with statistics about increased revenue, economic growth, and GDP performance. These figures are meaningless when they do not positively affect the lives of the people.
“A growing economy that leaves the majority behind in poverty is fundamentally flawed. Economic progress must be measured by its impact on people’s lives, not by statistics alone.”
Responding on behalf of the committee, Odigie-Oyegun assured party members that his committee would develop policies that will help the party come out with a manifesto that would make everyone happy.
He said, “We are going to, through your leadership and the message you have so eloquently passed on to us today, do our very best to ensure that the path that you have now clearly enunciated will become the mantra of this party
“That will bring the entire nation to know, finally, that yes, they are watching us. Are they serious? Are they going to be different from the others who, some of them, are the same faces?
“But I think that with the manifesto, we hope the party will finally adopt, in a language that the ordinary man can understand and see how he himself fits into it, will change the dynamics of politics in this nation.”
Chuks Okocha
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