The presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples’ Party (NNPP), Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso has promised to address unemployment, insecurity and brain-drain in the health sector, if elected.
Kwankwaso made the pledge during a presidential debate organised by the Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG) in collaboration with the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) in Abuja on Sunday
Kwankwaso said that if elected, his administration would adopt two approaches, including direct employment of more people into public service, as the security agencies.
Kwankwaso said that his government would also create the enabling environment for affordable and reliable electricity, and transportation infrastructure for Nigerians to establish businesses for young men and women to get jobs.
He said that when he was governor of Kano State, he did not just provide infrastructure for the state but also paid the debt owed by the state.
“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.
He said: “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 that his administration would support the farmers who are about 70 per cent of the population. He said that his administration would also tackle the insecurity that had not allowed farmers to go to their farms.
The NNPP candidate said that his government would give the needed support to the military, the way it was done when he was the minister of defence. He said: “I can tell you that when I was minister, we did all that we could to our military men and women in terms of their welfare, equipment, training and retraining, and so on and so forth.
“We provided the military from Second Lieutenant to the highest four-star general, vehicles, at a subsidised price and other ranks, motorcycles.”
On health, Kwankwaso said he believed health insurance was very important and the government must consider it as the way out.