Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), has unveiled his eagerly-awaited manifesto. The 72-page manifesto, titled ‘It’s POssible: Our Pact with Nigerians’, was released on Sunday.
The manifesto listed seven priority areas that Obi’s administration would concentrate on if elected president.
Here are some of the highlights of the manifesto.
One of the priorities of the manifesto is to shift emphasis from production to consumption by creating a production-centred economy driven by an agrarian revolution and export-oriented industrialisation.
The former Anambra governor promised to “aggressively” pursue policies and programmes that will enhance the productivity of all sectors of the Nigerian economy.
He added that his administration would create programmes for youths in order to achieve greater synergy between their skill sets and talents.
On diversification of the economy, Obi said his administration will increase the export potential of the country’s agriculture and natural resources value chain.
The LP presidential candidate reiterated his commitment to putting a “permanent end” to incessant banditry, insurgency, kidnapping and cross-border terrorism.
He promised to increase the personnel of the armed forces, police and other security agencies, and adequately fund them in order to enhance their capacities to respond to security threats.
Obi promised to remove the current salary structure of the national minimum wage in which workers are being paid on a monthly basis and replace it with an “hourly productivity-based national minimum rate”.
The LP presidential candidate said private and public sector employers would pay their workers based on their actual productivity.
In the 72-page manifesto, Obi said his administration will “critically review” the 68 items on the exclusive list and move the agreed items to the concurrent list.
He promised that within the first year of his administration, he will commence with the immediate implementation of the Stephen Oronsaye report, which recommended the merger of some ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
“Review all the regulatory agencies of Nigeria with a plan to gradually move away from a bureaucratic approach to incentive-based regulation that is based on cost-benefit analysis,” the manifesto said.
“In this regard, we will establish the Office of Regulatory Review in the Executive Office of the President to review and harmonise proposed regulations to ensure they pass cost-benefit analysis and enhance economic efficiency and social justice before they are enacted.
He added that he will address legislation guiding the funding access modalities to Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), in order to remove prevailing bottlenecks.
On healthcare policy, he promised to provide health insurance coverage to “133 million poorest Nigerians including pregnant women, children, the aged and the disabled”.
