I’ll Preserve National Assets As President – Dan Nwanyanwu

• Chides Atiku, PDP over national assets sale agenda 

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – The National Chairman and Presidential candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Chief Dan Nwanyanwu has promised to preserve and make all national assets viable while telling Nigerians the truth at all times.

According to him, as the elected president, his ZLP administration will not sell the national patrimony nor lie to Nigerians about the country’s state of affairs going forward.

Chief Nwanyanwu, who was reacting to comments by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar about selling off the nation’s assets to run the economy, said; ”I will not sell our national assets. I will not sell the refineries. I will turn them (refineries) around for the good of our economy and the country.”

Further frowning at Atiku’s proposal, the ZLP flag bearer said; “One of my fellow candidates said he will sell our assets. He wants to sell the NNPC and refineries. They want to sell it to themselves. They have done it before and our situation worsened for it. The truth is that they have succumbed to their inefficiency.

“He wants to sell our assets to their cronies under the Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs). Look at the power sector that was privatised, look at all assets sold, and nothing accrued to Nigeria”.

He assured that; “When elected, I will get the refineries back to work. We put modular refineries in each of the geo-political zones and gave our fuel challenges resolved.

Chief Nwanyanwu also pledged to run an open and people-centred administration where governance will be demystified, noting that; “Nigerians are the easiest set of people to govern. All they need is to tell them the truth.

“If you tell them the truth and they believe you, they will do whatever you ask them to do. But the problem we have had in the past is that we don’t tell Nigerians the truth”.

Nwanyanwu made these submissions in Abuja while unveiling the ZLP’s 76-page updated manifesto tagged “Our path to unity, peace and progress” as part of activities making its campaign flag-off for this year’s general elections.

He said Nigeria’s challenges were due to the inability of leaders at various levels of governance to be truthful and honest in discharging their responsibilities to the citizenry.

The Presidential Standard bearer said greed and corruption have made Nigerians to lose faith in some leaders, fuelling the increasing wave of mass disenchantment and disobedience, adding the “government say the truth when it does not matter”.

Promising that he will not lie to Nigerians, Nwanyanwu said; “I have never lied to them before and the people know this. My presidency will not lie to our people”.

In unveiling the Party’s manifesto, Nwanyanwu said the document proposes a new socio-political and economic order that represents a radical departure from the store system that serves the interest of a predatory governing elite.

“Our government shall install an inclusive governance system that incorporates all stakeholders; civil society, the organised labour, youth movement, women’s groups, professional bodies, the media and Nigeria in the diaspora”, he assured Nigerians.

Addressing issues around the ZLP’s campaign for next month’s polls, Chief Nwanyanwu said arising from series of grassroots consultations across the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, the party is already packaging vibrant town hall meetings across the six geo-political zones to effectively engage Nigerians on the way to go.

“In preparation for the 2023 general elections, we have reviewed party activities and we have also mapped out strategies towards the general elections coming up next month. We are ready for the 2023 general election.

“All the others are virtually saying the same thing. Not that we have not been speaking to them, but we are going to have them documented as a pact, as a covenant with the people of Nigeria. It is not late, this is the best time.

“And if you recall in the past, this is the time you go for campaigns. Forget about those with deep pockets they have been on a jamboree of rallies and all that. No worries, we will see where it will all lead to.

“We are not interested in organizing the jamboree rallies that you see. We will be talking directly to the voters. We are going to be talking to people on the farms, we are going to be talking to people in the Villages. These are the people that will vote not those people you see at the rallies. Everybody here is representing a State”, he said.

Warning that surprises await the so-called established political parties during the elections, the ZLP National Chairman said; “This election is an election of PVC. All those that are making noise for other candidates all over the world, I don’t want to be specific but by the time we work for one, or two weeks, Chatham House will invite us to come. Because we have something new and different.”

The Presidential candidate, who also berated other parties for going on jamboree and spending spree ahead of the general elections, said; “Those that we are having meetings with are those that have PVCs, not those organizing rallies or those paying millions of dollars for Chatham House to invite them”