The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, has urged Nigerians to stop blaming the central government for poor development at the sub-national levels and take an interest in what governors and local government chairmen do with their monthly allocations.
The APC Chairman made the statement on Monday in Abuja while speaking at the launch of a book, “Vicious Red Circle”, written by Ambassador Alex Ugochukwu Oriaku.
The APC president noted that what governors and council presidents receive has tripled compared to previous administrations, and stated that this should translate into development at the subnational level.
He said: “No governor in Nigeria knows that two years ago there was a share of about 400 billion naira per month. But today, the last share they made was 2.2 trillion naira. No governor in Nigeria today collects less than three times, even four times more than what he used to collect before. None.
“So they can do more for their people. No governor collects less than three times that. None. Now they are focusing on bigger projects. And to me, this is a change that we need in governors.
“I would say talk to your governors. Talk to your local government presidents. Let them do more.”
While giving indications that the current administration was pursuing correct economic policies, the APC president said his dream is for Nigeria to move forward under his party.
“My dream is to have a party that drives Nigeria in the right direction. Give Nigeria not just a look but a reality that Nigeria is better and more open.
“We can turn the corner. And as a political party, the APC, we like to do the unthinkable. We make changes that seem unreasonable in the eyes of the people, but deep down and rooted in our hearts, there are things that we can do that can improve the lives of our people. That is at the core of our hearts. And that is why we are working as citizens with the economy, and everyone knows that the numbers are changing.
“The World Bank, the IMF, they said that we cannot grow up to 3% of GDP annually. We are doing 4.23% now. It was predicted that for now, we cannot produce more than 1 million barrels per day. We are doing 1.7, 1.8 million barrels per day. And I can keep giving the numbers. But these numbers must be reflected in the people.”
The President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Dr. Ike Neliaku, who reviewed the book described it as quite insightful as it exposed the competition between the corrupt interplay of poverty and exploitation in society.
He also called on Nigerians to reject the culture of silence, adding that when people see evil and refuse to speak, it is an endorsement of the practice.
On why he wrote the book, Vicious Red Circle author Amb. Alex Ugochukwu Oriaku, described human trafficking as a vicious and self-perpetuating cycle of exploitation, vulnerability and silence.
“It is a circle that feeds on the desperate, the vulnerable, the marginalized and the invisible. And for too long we have allowed this circle to remain intact, operating in the shadows of our society, at the edges of our consciousness.
“I wrote it to build a bridge. A bridge of empathy between the abstract horror of a global crisis and the beating heart of a single human story. This novel follows a life, a journey, a fictional story woven from countless real and heartbreaking truths.”
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