Douglas Otaru.

NKRUMAH BANKONG-OBI/Lafia

The problems militating against Nigeria’s progress can be resolved through parleys held at regional levels. This was the view canvased by Douglas Otaru, publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Nasarawa State chapter on Wednesday. Otaru who was interacting with reporters on different issues of national interest, acknowledged that the country is facing different issues that require attention. “Mr President has a joker to play to win the hearts of the Nigerian citizens. Whether you like it or not, the issues of social injustice are there, and this is an age-long matter that Nigeria has been sitting on. I want Mr. President, in addressing this issue of social justice to bring an equilibrium into the social space. The first thing he should do is to convoke what I call the regional roundtable. Every region should assemble stakeholders from the political circle to the business circle, and the student circle, among others, to address these leaders and let him present his blueprint to these people. So that they will know the trajectory that he is taking in solving the age-old problem of Nigeria.”

On the subsidy removal policy, the Nasarawa APC spokesman praised President Tinubu for his courage to dare to trudge where others have failed. However, he was quick to point out that there are loopholes in the implementation of the policy, thus paving the way for the widespread misunderstanding of the intention. “Yes, nobody is saying that the removal of subsidy is a bad omen. No, he did that for the good of this country. The only place are challenges is the lack of concerted ability to articulate the implementation before removing the subsidy on petrol. Yes, let’s say he did that in good faith, there was an error in the implementation strategy, and nothing is wrong, if he goes back to the roundtable to reinvent, and rearticulate his strategy to make it a more inclusive policy for the Nigerian people. A situation where Mr. President would release funds to state governors and these funds do not trickle down to the masses, it means there is a call for worry,” he said calling for caution in the manner savings from the subsidy removal is channelled.

Otaru believes that accruals from subsidy removal should be put into specific people-oriented programmes. “What should have been done,” he said, “is to ensure that schools become free, from primary to secondary education. If he does that, the common man on the street, and the parents in their respective homes, will have a sort of relief. Number two, what I desired should have done, was to declare free medical care for the aged and pregnant women and children in the society. If he does that the removal of subsidy and whatever gain that comes from the removal of subsidy would have trickled down to the ordinary man on the streets. Again, one of the things I would have loved Mr President to have done would have been to revamp the school feeding programme and make it more robust. But in this case, it should be a community-driven project,” noting that if politicians must be part of the implementation of these programmes, they must not play key roles.

Reacting to accusations against Governor Abdullahi Sule of betraying the Northcentral zone of the Party in its quest to produce the National chairman of the APC, Otaru described Governor Sule as a perfect gentleman who has no powers to single-handedly determine the leadership of the Party but instead wants the best for the region. “My governor, Engr. Abdullahi Sule is not the chairman of the APC. He is not the one who decides who becomes the Chairman of the APC. If anybody is aggrieved by my governor’s relationship with the National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, it is left for them. if the northcentral want the National chairmanship of the Party to come to its region, then they should mobilize and go to the NEC meeting and canvass for support from the other governors. My governor does not have the unilateral power to handpick anybody to become the National Chairman of the Party,” he said, describing the purveyors of such stories as faceless and unknown to the Party in the State or region. Otaru also expressed optimism that all the crises rocking the various chapters of the Party will be resolved through the instrumentality of the APC National Executive Council meeting and the mini-convention as well as other mechanisms before the 2027 general elections.

Pix: Hon. Douglas Otaru