Atiku Vows To Implement State Police, Says Universities Won’t Go On Strike If Elected

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate for the 2023 general election, Atiku Abubakar, has vowed to implement state policing as one of his strategies to tackle insecurity in the country.

According to him, the creation of state police would help boost security in the country, and their establishment he said would not be used to harass Nigerians at the local level.

Naija News reports that Atiku who spoke on Saturday at the PDP presidential campaign rally in Benin City, the Edo state capital, said that when elected to power, he will right all the wrongs the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has caused Nigerians.

He said “My priority assignment as President is to unify this country. The current APC government has done a lot to destroy the unity of this country and it will be unfortunate to give them another opportunity to continue their bad job. So, I am going to correct that.

“Secondly, we are going to ensure that we provide security and make it possible again for Nigerians to travel across the country without any fear of security breach. We will also ensure that our children receive quality and sustainable education. The PDP did this by enacting the universal basic education law, which gave the rights to our children to have compulsory education.

“Similarly, we shall boost the economy and bring in the private sector to create jobs for the youths; provide infrastructure, and restore the confidence of Nigerians in the public sector. Again, we are going to make sure that we devolve more power and responsibilities to the state and local governments and bring the government closer to the people.”

The former vice president said that his five-point policy agenda will give priority to reviving the nation’s economy as well as strengthening Nigeria’s educational sector.

“The nation’s universities will not go on strike. I assured you by the Grace of God. I promised you that. Again, we promise to revive the economy of this country. We will do that by making sure that our industries and factories resume production again.

“We will make sure that there are a lot of jobs for our children that are passing out from our schools. That is what we mean by reviving the economy. We will work together with the private sector to make sure that industries and factories, particularly here in Edo, resume operations so that there will be a lot of jobs for you,” he submitted.

Speaking at the event also was the vice presidential candidate of the party, Ifeanyi Okowa, who appealed to the people of the Niger Delta to support Atiku’s presidential bid.

Okowa told the crowd that they shouldn’t forget it was Atiku’s intervention as a vice president then that led to the establishment of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

“The Niger Delta people have for the past seven years been left in limbo by the APC administration because they don’t know the problem facing the people and we are assuring you that as soon as Atiku Abubakar and I are sworn in May 2023, we know where to start again,” Okowa said.

On his part, Governor Godwin Obaseki urged the people to support Atiku and Okowa as well as the PDP at large to preserve the legacy of the founding fathers of the state.