Atiku commences tours of flood impacted states Tuesday

Tunde Opalana

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar will commence a tour of states with high incidents of flooding across all geo-political zones in the country on Tuesday.

A press release by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe states that the PDP presidential flag bearer shall be visiting Bayelsa State, to kickstart the tour.

According to Ibe, “the tours to states ravaged by flooding become incumbent in view of the trauma that the incidents have caused its victims.

“Consequently, the tours will provide the presidential candidate the opportunity to have an on-sight impact assessment of these flooding incidents and give him a veritable window to input those ecological concerns in his policy documents.”

Recall that the PDP presidential candidate had supported flood victims in Jigawa, Yobe and Kano long before now. He was also the first candidate to speak on the issue and had counselled that persons living around the most vulnerable areas be temporarily evacuated following the alert by the meteorological agency that a further 24 states faced the risk of major flooding.

Meanwhile the presidential candidate made a commitment that he will fulfill every of his campaign promises to Nigerians, if elected president in 2023.

He made the commitment in Benin, Edo State capital on Saturday during the PDP presidential campaign rally.

Atiku reeled out to the teeming crowd at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, his five- program commitment.

He said “One, we have promised to reunify this country what do we mean by that? We mean we are going to give each and every part of this country a sense of belonging. You will not be excluded in anything. That is why we are being referred to as unifiers of our great nation.

“Two, we promise to restore security. Whatever it is going to take us to do it, we are restore security in this country so that you can travel day and night, so that you can go to your farms, so that you can go to anywhere secured.
We will put more policemen on the streets. We will equip them; we will fortify them and since we have promised to devolve more powers to the states and local governments, you can also have your own local police. We shall make sure your local police don’t harass you.

“Three, we will send back all our eligible children to school. They must go to school; every child must go to school. If you remember, during the PDP years, we established compulsory primary school education from primary to secondary school and we are tasking Nigerians to educate these children. But this government is not keeping to that promise. We promise you; every child must go to school and our universities will not go on strike, we promise you that one by the grace of God.

“Again, we promise to revive the economy of this country. We will make sure that our industries, our factories, resume production in this country. We will make sure that there are enough jobs for our youths who are passing out from the schools. This is what we mean by reviving the economy. We will work together with the private sector to make sure that industries, factories particularly here in Edo resume operations so that there will be enough jobs for you.

“Again, we promise infrastructural development in the country, particularly in Edo, linking Edo to the South and linking Edo to the North. We will make sure all these roads are rehabilitated and they are motorable.”

He specifically promised Nigerians an efficient rail system which he said his government will make possible in partnership with the private sector, to make sure “that we have rails established across this country so that you can move freely, as well as also your goods and services across the country.”

Atiku said PDP government under his presidency will correct all the wrongs byPDP administration, saying “you have seen how APC has destroyed this country, destroyed the economy of this country. They have destroyed your educational opportunities. They have destroyed your job opportunities. APC is not a party to the supported.”

His running mate and governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa said the PDP has made a great choice in Atiku and himself because the presidential candidate understand the problem of the Niger Delta.

“He knows all the states of the Niger Delta, it was during his time with President Obasanjo that they started the NDDC and the NDDC was doing well, but in the last seven years we have not seen the hand of the NDDC in our states because the APC government did not know the purpose for which NDDC was established.

“We have brought a man who we know will be able to restore our economy, make sure there are more jobs and the youths will get employment. He understands that the state needs more money, more power, and he has promised us that he is going to give more powers, more resources to the state, to the local government.

“A lot of institutions have been established that have not been put into effective use, because they did not know how it came about,” he said

But Okowa added that the PDP government knows how to run the economy that will be good for the youths, women and all Nigerians.

Chairman of PDP presidential campaign council and governor of Akwa – Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel assured Nigerians that all challenges and troubles they currently face will be over
by the time they vote Atiku Abubakar.

Udom said “when PDP was in government, couldn’t you travel easily? We are coming to rescue and to restore our situation to our pride of place in Africa. Today we have only one message for the youth, message of social contract in PDP, that this government that will do real democracy, government of the people by the people for the people that is your social contract.

” I can assure you that this is one government that knows the problem and has the solution; you are voting for progress, employment, security, economic renaissance, so, Edo is the heart beat of Nigeria, the large heart, this is where economy booms. All those places we used to see when i went out they are not there again. So, PDP must come back.”

National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu catalogued the problems saying “we know what is your problem in this country, your problem in bad governance by that party. There is hunger in the land, you don’t need to tell anybody. There is insecurity in the land. You can’t sleep in your house, everything about Nigeria is going down. There is disunity everywhere because of bad policies.”

He said the presidential candidate, being a former vice president of Nigeria and his running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa, will tackle insecurity, educational problems, infrastructure and issue of the economy and there will be jobs for everybody.