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 this 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 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 the 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.”
Earlier, 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 Delta State.
“In collaboration with you, we can build a state worthy of our potentials”,
he said.