The African Democratic Congress (ADC) on Monday assured that the party’s Manifesto would provide partway for good governance, even as it charged members of the Policy and Manifesto Committee to produce implementable document.
David Mark, the party’s national chairman, while inaugurating the Committee on Monday, noted that Nigerians are not looking for clever arguments, but “policies and actions that show that government understands what they are going through and is prepared to act with clarity, courage and most importantly with compassion.”
He urged the committee to avoid previous pitfalls that make manifestoes look like academic exercise, rather than practical documents that resonate with the aspirations of the people
He charged the committee to provide answers to questions asked by Nigerians with ” clarity, firm commitment, and measurable outcomes they can see and feel, not propaganda. There must be no ambiguity in our answer. This is the task before you.”
Mark who also noted that Nigerians are currently suffering more than any other time in the nation’s history, added that ” poverty stares us in the face. Yes, poverty and hardship have always existed but the hardship and poverty that Nigerians are experiencing under the APC administration has gotten worse”.
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“You are not here simply to generate proposals. You are here to ensure that every recommendation is practicable. You must listen, not only to experts, but to farmers, traders, workers, parents, Millennial, GEN-Z, and GEN-Alpha whose lives are shaped by the decisions we make. You must test every idea against a simple but demanding question, does this reduce suffering, or does it merely rearrange it?
“Nigeria does not need rhetorics. She needs honest thinking and workable solutions.
“As a party, we must be prepared not just to win power, but to justify power through service. The ADC must be known not for noise, but for seriousness. Not for empty promises, but for performance, not for propaganda, but for reality.
He stated that the situation has been brought about and compounded by government needlessly vicious policies, adding that ” What Nigerians are desperately looking for are credible alternative ideas, actions and policies.
“They want policies that would improve their lives today and lay a solid foundation on which they can improve their future. They want policies that show compassion.
“Across the country, families are working harder and earning lesser and lesser, food prices rise faster than wages, salaries and incomes can cope. Power supply remains epileptic even as tariffs increase astronomically. Strangely, the APC government continue to aggravate the citizen’s tax burdens. Insecurity continues to disrupt the peoples social and economic life”
Like the party, Mark charged the committee to ensure that they put the people first.
” Nigerians are not looking for who to blame for their suffering, they already know who is responsible for that. They are looking for who will ease the pains. They want real, practical solutions that address the challenges of today, not policies that expect them to continue to give and give and give.
Mark who also noted that Nigeria does not suffer from shortage of ideas, added that ” what we suffer from is a failure to connect ideas to reality.
“Too often, policy in this country has been an academic exercise detached from the very people it is meant to serve. Documents are produced, committees are set up, reports are written, white papers are produced, yet nothing changes in the lives of the people which is what matters most.
According to him ” Policy is not about sounding intelligent. It is not about volume or complexity. You must resist the temptation to treat symptoms while ignoring causes. You must go beneath the surface. You must think outside of the box. You must ask hard questions about why things are not working in this country. This is the burden before you”
Mark berated the governments at different lev ls that have continued to regale the people “with statistics about increased revenue, economic growth, and GDP performance. These figures are meaningless when they do not positively affect the lives of the people.
” A growing economy that leaves the majority behind in poverty is fundamentally flawed. Economic progress must be measured by its impact on people’s lives, not by statistics alone.”
Mark while referencing the energy sector, noted that the high cost and the unreliable nature of energy had led to the collapse productivity, businesses struggle, absence of jobs and deepening of poverty.
“Any serious policy conversation must be anchored on a simple but crucial question; how do we make energy affordable and accessible to the majority of our people?
“Government has removed fuel subsidy. The question is not whether subsidy removal is desirable or not. The real question is whether the people now paying more for fuel can see tangible benefits reflected in other areas of their lives. Clearly, the answer is no. Nigerians who are paying more for fuel, for food, for medications, for transportation, housing and electricity are asking a very pertinent questions”
John Oyegun, Chairman of the Committee, assured that he will work with his team to find an imaginative way, to produce a manifesto that meets the need of the party.
Oyegun who lamented that elected government officials usually abandon the party’s Manifesto once they assumed office, said “We must not let them become emperors, and we all dance around looking for petty, petty jobs to do. Meanwhile, the people that put us there, they are not relevant anymore.
“So things are going to change. We are going to, through your leadership and the message you have so eloquently passed on to us today, do our very best to ensure that the path that you have now clearly enunciated will become the mantra of this party, that will bring the entire nation to know, finally, that yes, they are watching us.
“But I think that with the manifesto the party will finally adopt, the ordinary man can understand and see how he himself fits into it, will change the dynamics of politics in this nation.”
