APC To Unveil Manifesto Thursday, Blasts Jonathan
The All Progressives Congress (APC) is set to unveil its “Road map to a
New Nigeria” at the Party's National Summit to be held in Abuja on
Thursday, March 6th.
The Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, said in a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday that the Road map
will detail the party's priorities in fixing the widespread failings of
successive PDP governments since 1999, in order to bring
hope and succour to the long-suffering people of Nigeria.
It said the Road map was a product of an empirical and painstaking process
embarked upon by the APC, in a deviation from the old practice of
packaging such documents on a whim.
”With conditions deteriorating throughout Nigeria, with security an ever
increasing concern, with the lack of jobs pushing families and young
people further and further into poverty and with new stories of corruption
within the PDP government appearing day after day, the APC decided to
commission the largest ever public opinion survey in Nigerian history to
determine the current status of things in the nation directly from those
who knew best – the actual people of Nigeria.
”The results were even more revealing than the APC had anticipated: When
asked, 'If the election were held today, would you vote for Goodluck
Jonathan or the candidate of the All Progressives Congress', the APC
candidate held a ten-point lead over the President. By a
margin of 44% to 34% (with 22% undecided), the APC candidate was the clear
national choice.
”When asked, 'In general, do you think things in Nigeria are going in a
good direction or bad direction', by a staggering more than two-to-one
margin (50%-24%), Nigerians responded that the country was going in a bad
direction. When asked, 'What issue would you like the President and
National Assembly to focus on most', an overwhelming majority (60%) said
jobs was the dominant issue that the government should address.
”And then when asked if they found the following statement convincing or
note, 'Goodluck Jonathan has done nothing to create jobs, and far too many
people are still unemployed', decisively, 58% of Nigerians found that
argument about Jonathan convincing.
Finally when asked if Jonathan was doing a good or bad job fighting
corruption, 59% Nigerians thought Jonathan was doing a bad job fighting
corruption.
”The voice of the people was clear: The nation is going in the wrong
direction. The nation wants change and would not vote to re-elect Jonathan
in part because the number one issue to Nigerians is jobs and the nation
believes Jonathan has no credibility on the issue of job creation,” APC
said.
According to the party, the unveiling of the party's Road map, designed
with the survey results in mind and the real needs of the Nigerian people
made evident by the people themselves, will be the clearest indication yet
that the Movement for Change has indeed begun.