The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara has challenged the All Progressives Congress (APC) to ensure that it delivers on its promise of Change as that will make reelection in 2019 a walk over for the party.
The Speaker said this when he received a delegation from Delta State APC under the umbrella of Delta APC Contact Committee in his office on Wednesday, according to a statement issued in Abuja by his spokesman, Turaki Hassan. Dogara noted that nothing could sell the party faster and wider than providing tools of empowerment for Nigerians to thrive in their businesses and daily lives through the provision of infrastructure and other needs as promised by the party.
While commenting on how Delta and other opposition states can be captured by the APC in 2019, the Speaker explained, “a better way of getting there will be for APC states and the APC controlled federal government to deliver on promises. If we are able to do that, you may not even have to suffer or pool resources and you may not even have to campaign, because the people will know that those in APC are serious people who will deliver on their mandate and because it’s been done elsewhere, if they are given the opportunity in Delta State as well, they can replicate that.
“We know that rebuilding infrastructure is key because only free, empowered citizens can actually contribute in a democracy. That is what democracy is all about, freedom to pursue happiness and how do you pursue happiness when you do not have the tools to do that? And so I believe that as soon as the budget gets underway, the kind of pains that we see right now will lessen and we should be able to deliver on the promise of change, which will also lift Delta APC to a new pedestal.
“If APC is able to surmount these challenges, if we are able to find pathways through them and Nigerians can see not only the visions that we have articulated but how we have also been able to deliver on these, we would have risen the status of this party to a level where we can take the centre stage and still take all the other states that we don’t have control over right now. We know the potentials that you hold within the boundaries of Delta state and it is a state that every serious government at the centre will want to have.”
Commending the group for planning way ahead of the elections, he noted that “without vision the people perish and maybe if we’ve been in opposition for too long and not been able to wrestle power from the mainstream, it may be that the parts were not well articulated and that is why I love the fact that you are beginning to put your house in order well ahead of time. One thing with vision is that it gives you a destination and once you have a destination, you know the roads or the pathways that will take you to that destination, and with this vision and a defined path, I’m a hundred percent sure that by the grace of God, we will get there.”
Dogara went further to add that the hardship and challenges currently being faced by Nigerians will soon be a thing of the past as the budget of change will be finally brought on stream next week following meetings held with the President on Tuesday, and subsequent ones scheduled to put final touches to the document.
Giving this assurance, he said, “Even though we came at a period when things were difficult, the budget of change is still with the Executive and the Legislature, and although cynical commentators believe that we may not be able to summon the leadership to be able to produce this document, the meeting we held with the President belies that as we reached agreements and arrangements and the issue of the budget will just be a matter of days, not even weeks. Hopefully, we will be able to transmit the document this Friday to the President, or latest, when work resumes after May Day. When this is finally resolved, Nigerians will now see clearly, the visions that are there, the programmes that are articulated and then what we have appropriated in order to deliver on this mandate of change.”
In an earlier remark, Chairman of the Delta State APC Contact Committee, Prof Pat Utomi said they were on the visit to show that the APC in Delta State is ready to bring true, lasting and sustainable peace to the people of the state.
“In collaboration with you, we can build a state worthy of our potentials,” he said.
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