2023: Kwankwaso plans subsidy probe; massive military and police recruitments

The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Tuesday said he would examine and review all subsidy regimes from the 1970s till date.

 He also promised to ensure that all entrance examinations into tertiary institutions were free for Nigerians.

Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, highlighted these in his 160-page manifesto and policy document titled, “My pledges to you. The RMK2023 Blueprint” which was unveiled and obtained by The PUNCH in Abuja.

Specifically, he said his administration, if elected in 2023, would ensure that parents do not pay a dime as registration fees for the West African Examination Council, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and National Examination Council.

Kwankwaso said apart from ensuring free examination forms, JAMB/UTME results under his government would have a lifespan of four years.

Although there was silence on whether his administration would end the controversial petrol subsidy gulping trillions of Naira annually, Kwankwaso said Nigeria had lost billions to subsidies. Hence, if elected, his administration would assess the past subsidy regime in the overall interest of Nigeria.

Subsidies were first introduced in Nigeria in the 1970s as a response to the oil price shock of 1973, The PUNCH learnt.

The NNPP presidential candidate also pledged to mop up the 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria in the next four years.

He said this would be achieved through the launch of a half-million classroom initiative in his first few weeks in office by building 40 blocks of classrooms per local government per annum for the first four years.

Kwankwaso, in the document, maintained that examination agencies are not revenue-generating agencies and must not operate as such.

Concerning security, the NNPP presidential candidate stated that an additional 750,000 personnel would be recruited into the armed forces and that the Nigerian Police Force would be expanded to one million active service men and women.

Speaking further at the event, Kwankwaso said the release of the manifesto was delayed deliberately because his ideas could easily be picked by other candidates to forge their own arrangements.

He said, “We are happy that at least the three parties have already released their own blueprints. We have seen them and anybody looking at our own would agree with me that there are original ideas that we have been nursing over the years to have an opportunity to bring them to Nigeria.”

He said, “The country has never been so divided as it is now with massive mistrust amongst the people; the level of insecurity has never been this bad with everywhere being unsafe and everyone feeling threatened; the economic woes resulting in abject poverty for the majority have never been this biting with avoidable inflation and the freefall of the Naira.

“The unemployment crisis is so concerning, and it appears that no effort is being made to create opportunities for the thousands of unemployed youths, resulting in despondency, hopelessness, and an increase in crime.”

He, however, assured that the NNPP would right the wrongs of past administrations.

GOGAN TV