A Presidential aspirant under the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Professor Femi Olufunmilade, on Tuesday, stated that he would implement 2014 National Confab Report if given the mandate in 2019 Presidential election.
Professor Olufunmilade, who also opined that establishment of State Police remained the panacea to Fulani herdsmen/ farmers’ clashes and prevalent kidnappings in some parts of the country, said implementation of Confab report would resolve perennial crises ravaging many communities in Nigeria.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja during his declaration and presentation of Presidential Policy Book, titled: “For The Good Of Our People- A Nigerian Manifesto,” Professor Olufunmilade said the report had settled a lot of contentious and perennial issues dogging the country, promising to use it, among other lofty programmes, to bring succor to the teeming Nigerian populace.
While emphasizing on the importance of the State Police, Professor Olufunmilade said each State Police headquarters would be able to tackle any challenge confronting its jurisdiction and nip in the bud.
According to him, “I was privileged to see former President Goodluck Jonathan about two weeks ago. We interacted and I even gave him two copies of this my book and told him that do you know what you did that I really like, I said it is 2014 National Confab report because that report had settled a lot of contentious and perennial issues dogging this country.
“If I am privileged to be President, go and look at the Chapter of Restructuring, what you need to do is to set up a technical committee for the implementation. There had never been a Confab in the history of Nigeria that had representatives like that of Confab, and most of the issues bordering on insecurity, national unity, revenue and others had been settled there, and let the technical committee set up have an implementation modality.” He added.
On how to manage the face-off between the Executive and Legislature, the SDP Presidential aspirant said: “I will not have a problem with the National Assembly on Budget because the Budget Committee will be part and parcel of my government. I will accommodate their legitimate demands in terms of attractions or amenities to their respective jurisdictions, but I am not going to compromise in terms of allocating money for some people to pocket. In the process of preparing my Budget, they will be part and parcel of it so that by the time it is summited officially, they will pass it within a matter of days.
“I will run an inclusive government and that inclusiveness will ensuring that whatever I do, my closest friend will be from the National Assembly. They will have access to me. I will use them to the very best of me in monitoring my own projects.” He promised.
While reviewing the Book, the former Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief (MD/EID) of the Nigerian Tribune, Mr. Folu Olamiti, said the issues addressed via the political road-map compendium were “fairly comprehensive, covering such important fields as agriculture, power, education, industry, economic planning, defence and internal security among others.”
He said in publishing his policy papers in the compendium, he further hoped to raise the quality of politics in the country from pedestrian sloganeering and empty promises to the pedestal of the quality discourse of reasoned policy options as “is the case in the advanced democracies we love to cite as reference points.”
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