Oby Ezekwesili, the presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), has revealed how her government will tackle Boko Haram insurgency if elected in the 2019 general election, Premium Times reports.
She said her government will completely overhaul the security system to win the war against Boko Haram.
The former minister of education made this known in an interview on a CNN programme with Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday evening.
“A research we had at the World Bank showed that those communities where this menace thrive need to be engaged. We will provide jobs so that people will be busy and get paid.
“Second, my government will completely overhaul the security system. We need fresh hands and people who will end this problem.
“Third, we must also improve our intelligence gathering with cutting edge technology in order to be pre-emptive and proactive”.
Mrs Ezekwesili, the co-convener of #BringbackOurGirls, the group campaigning for the release of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, also spoke about the remaining 112 Chibok schoolgirls still in captivity.
She said she will continue to advocate for their release and that of Leah Sharibu. Miss Sharibu is the only one among girls kidnapped from a Dapchi school earlier this year still in Boko Haram custody.
Mrs Ezekwesili reiterated her call on Nigerians that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should be voted out in 2019.
She said she believed she was more qualified than other presidential candidates.
“I was the one who fixed public procurement system. I am not a stranger to the politicians. They know me. I know how to deal with them by blocking all loopholes where our collective wealth are siphoned.
“I won’t be fazed by the strength of the political class. 2019 is a contest between those who have not delivered and the rest of us. Even the other candidates know I am better,” she said.
As part of her campaigns, Mrs Ezekwesili recently visited and held meeting with Ibrahim Babangida, former military ruler to “discuss how Nigeria must be taken out of the clutches of the old order, in 2019.”
She was however criticised by Nigerians for the visit.
Many believe Mr Babangida was a key player in most of the military coups in Nigeria.
In 1993, as military ruler, he annulled the presidential election that most Nigerians tagged the most fair election in the history of Nigeria’s democracy, where it was unofficially announced that Moshood Abiola won the general election.
The 2019 presidential election is scheduled to hold on February 16, 2019.
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