Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar Atiku, has described public services in Nigeria as a travesty and a tragedy.
The former vice president, who was declared winner of his party’s presidential primary on Sunday, said more than half of the population in rural and urban areas, lives below the poverty line without access to basic amenities. Electricity is scarce, sanitation is poor, Police and security presence is patchy and health services are grossly inadequate.
According to him, children have to walk long distances to poorly equipped and overcrowded schools, only for their teachers not to turn up for work. Few trust the government and most believe that the only time officials and politicians visit is during the election season when they buy votes and make promises that never materialise.
All these, he says, have to stop.
“As President, I promise to undertake the following urgent measures: we will develop a simple data model that can be used in websites, posters, and electronic displays to document federal budget allocations for basic infrastructure (water, power, sanitation, roads) and services (food, housing, healthcare, education, and social security).
“We will compare allocations with actual MDA (state, local government) expenditures. We will show residents how much infrastructure and services they got for a given amount of federal monies spent then show how ‘their’ infrastructure and basic services costs compare to those incurred by other MDAs and local and state governments.
“We will also encourage MDAs and state governments to expand the provision of potable water, health care, affordable housing, etc,” he said.
