A presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adamu Garba, on Monday, said he has what it takes to win the ticket of the party ahead of Bola Tinubu and Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo.
He made this statement while speaking on Trust Tv‘s Daily Politics on Monday.
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He said Nigeria had paid more attention to politics rather than the economy, explaining that he is coming into the race banking on a vision to transform geopolitical zones into economic zones.
Garba, who said he had been in APC since 2014, said he decided to run on the platform of the party because he believes two main parties are in Nigeria.
He said a political party’s agenda is to win elections, adding that he appeals to the biggest demography – the young people.
“The APC has the biggest chance of winning the presidential election by presenting my candidacy. I appeal to the demography that is feeling excluded from the system, the younger generation.
“I am coming with a vision…to engineer the system and transform it for a new direction,” Garba who also ran for same position in 2019, said.
He said when he becomes the president, he would consider reviving the economy one of his top priorities.
He also said his government will fight inflation and infrastructural decay by introducing policies that will encourage production.
No to zoning
Garba condemned the clamour for zoning, saying the arrangement is anti-democratic.
“It is not a sense of entitlement but aspirants should convince the general public to vote for them,” he insisted.
While citing the US democracy as an example, he said a level playing ground should be presented to all aspirants notwithstanding the region they are from.
‘High cost of forms not good for Nigeria’
Speaking about the high cost of acquiring the Expression of Interest and Nomination forms in the APC, the aspirant said it was a wrong strategy deployed by the party.
“I believe that is not the way to go. You have to filter based on competency and capacity. In Ghana, to buy a presidential form, you spend £2000. In a country as large as the United States, you spend £5000. How can Nigeria spend almost £150000 to buy form? You have financialised everything,” he said.
He said any criminal could steal money and buy the form, adding that: “It encourages people to steal money in their offices since they know it takes only money to get political offices.”
Garba, therefore, called on the party to reconsider the price of the forms.
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