Rabiu Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), says he has been preparing himself for 47 years to be president of Nigeria.
Kwankwaso spoke at the presidential debate organised by the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) in collaboration with the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) in Abuja, on Sunday.
He said he had spent 17 years as a civil servant and 30 years as a politician which makes him the best candidate for the job.
“I thank almighty God that today I am standing and I believe Kwankwaso is the best candidate, I am the best person under our circumstances to be the president of Nigeria,” Kwankwaso said.
“I am a well-prepared person for the job. Kwankwaso is not the type who is in a hurry to be president. In 2007, I was in the civil service for 17 years.
“I was the deputy speaker, House of Representatives; I was in the Constitutional Conference; I was Governor, and I was a Minister of Defence. But I went back to Kano because I had an uncompleted job.
“So, I believe today, in terms of qualification, in terms of even health, in terms of capacity, in terms of experience, of course.”
Kwankwaso said his government would create an enabling environment for affordable and reliable electricity, and transportation infrastructure for Nigerians to establish businesses.
Asked how he would finance the employment of more personnel into the civil service, the former governor of Kano said Nigeria has the needed resources.
He said his government would block all leakages and wastage in the system.
“In 1999, when I was elected as governor of Kano and sworn in, we had piles of debts, within four years I was able to settle them,” he said.
“In those four years, we did not borrow any kobo. We did so much in terms of projects or programmes in the education, agriculture, and health sectors.
“We electrified over 400 towns and villages. In fact, when we left government, even when I went back, eight years after, I could only do very little because most, if not all the towns and the villages in Kano have been electrified.
“I can tell you that in our government, eight years that I was the governor, there was no security vote. I wasn’t taking one naira for anything.
“All areas of wastage from the family to friends, to this and that, we stopped it. Projects and programmes, as an engineer myself, I was going through every document to ensure value for money.”
On agriculture, Kwankwaso said his administration would support the farmers and tackle the insecurity that has prevented them from going to their farms.
He said his government would give the needed support to the military, the way it was done when he was the minister of defence.
“I can tell you that when I was minister, we did all that we could for our military men and women in terms of their welfare, equipment, training, and retraining,” he said.
“We provided the military from second lieutenant to the highest four-star general, vehicles, at a subsidised price and other ranks, motorcycles.”
‘EMPLOY MORE HEALTH PERSONNEL TO SOLVE BRAIN DRAIN’
Kwankwaso said he believes health insurance is very important and the government must consider it as the way out.
“We should be empowered to ensure that people, as many as possible in this country benefit from modern healthcare systems,” he said.
“We’re going to do it and we’re going to encourage the private sector. Create a conducive atmosphere with all sorts of encouragement to ensure that they participate.
“We need to see more teaching hospitals for the private sector, other bottlenecks created by our professional bodies have to be removed.”
Kwankwaso said his administration has plans to address the challenge of brain drain by employing enough health experts to meet Nigeria’s needs if elected.
On economic diplomacy, Kwankwaso said he would work with other international communities to develop the country.
He said his government would do whatever it takes to protect the interests of Nigeria and Nigerians.
“We are very lucky that the international community is interested in the peace and development of this country. For whatever reason, it suits them,” he said.
Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) were absent at the debate.
