Presidential candidate of KOWA Party, Sina Fagbenro-Byron, has revealed why his party pulled out of talks with a coalition to provide Nigerians with an alternative to the dominance of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2019 general elections.
The coalition known as Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT), he said, did not meet KOWA Party’s criteria for participation such as clarity of purpose.
DAILY POST reports that Fagbenro-Byron stated this on Thursday at a pre-campaign State of the Nation media parley in Abuja.
He said: “Prior to the conclusion of the primaries, we were in talks with a coalition of presidential aspirants called Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT).
“We withdrew because we felt that it did not meet our requirement of clarity of purpose and decision-making process and that we felt it was premature for PACT to seek to choose a consensus candidate while some members were yet to have party affiliation and primary elections were yet to be concluded. The coalition did not meet the criteria for a KOWA party participation.”
The presidential candidate, however, reiterated that his party was still a member of the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, which aims to unseat the current administration in 2019.
He further urged the CUPP to immediately convene a meeting of its presidential candidates and release guidelines for the election of a coalition presidential candidate.
Fagbenro-Byron argued that doing so would ensure that the cohesion will work for the intended goal of ushering in a new administration after the 2019 elections.
He further spoke on three matters of national importance.
He identified the three issues as the wave of violence in the country, the level of human displacements as a result of natural disasters, and the problem of youth unemployment.
On the wave of violence, he said: “Any trend that diminishes value for human life is totally unacceptable and we urge those in authorities in the jurisdictions where these occurrences have become the rule rather than the exception to review their strategies for peace, improve on intelligence gathering and early warning systems, ensure that the policing and judicial services are supported to act fast and act fairly.”
On displacement of citizens due to natural disasters, Fagbenro-Byron said: “Let me warn that a more structured and sustainable approach should be employed to prevent flooding otherwise it will get worse as the years go by. There is a need for all state governments in the federation to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.”
His words on unemployment: “Nigeria’s unemployment ratio is about 30% and rising. This is constituted by a growing youth bulge that we do not seem to fully appreciate.
“Nigeria must demonstrate a new commitment to the development of its women and youth demography with a view to educate, motivate, and improve their skills capacity and knowledge to a level sufficient to trigger their creativity, and ensure they are themselves employable and capable of creating employment.”
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