2023: Kachikwu Vows to Ban Foreign Schools, Hospitals for Public Officers, Families

* To recruit million soldiers into the Nigerian Army

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu, has vowed to stop public officers and families from attending foreign schools and hospitals if elected president next year.

Kachikwu stated this at a town hall meeting held in Abuja.

To achieve this, the ADC presidential candidate said he would sponsor a bill at the National Assembly that would be known as the Nigerian Patriot Act.

He said the piece of legislation would give all Nigerians a level playing field in terms of public facilities. 

He described as unfair, situations where public officers take advantage of privileged positions to enroll their children in foreign schools on government bills.

He also said it does not make any sense for any Nigerian leader at any tier of government to patronise foreign hospitals for medical care. 

Kachikwu said: “We can’t have different rules for different criminals. If you do the crime, you do the time. 

“If given the privilege to lead you, my first executive interface with the National Assembly will include a bill I have dubbed the Nigerian Patriot Act. It is a bill of equality and fairness. 

“It is a bill that says we are all in this together. It is a bill that ensures that public servants cannot use the privileges they cannot provide to the common man.

“If you desire to be in the public service, you must use the same services the masses use. 

“No private or foreign schools for our families, no private or foreign hospitals for us or our families, no generators or boreholes in our homes. 

“If we desire efficient and effective education, healthcare, utilities, etc we must make it available to all so that we may all equally benefit from it. This is how we will build a nation that works for everyone.”

The ADC presidential candidate also pledged to tackle insecurity with modern technologies and by recruiting additional one million soldiers into the Nigerian Army.

He said the money needed to fight insecurity and insurgency would not be diverted but would be strictly channelled for the purpose it is meant to address.

He said: “Insecurity would be tackled effectively with technology and we would decentralise our security institutions for efficiency.” 

He condemned the current practice where the federal government is borrowing foreign loans to construct amenities that would only benefit a few people in the society. 

“We must resist the wicked urge to take on sovereign debts that benefit a few but repaid by all. We can no longer borrow to build bridges and highways that lead nowhere when the internet is the highway of the future. 

“Borrowings must satisfy the criteria of commercial viability while providing much needed basic amenities.

“We need governors who understand that the internet is the highway of the future. 

“As you build roads you must build critical broadband infrastructure. We will make broadband available and affordable for all because this is the only leverage our kids have to compete in the new world. 

“I will work with the state governors on a plan that sees the federal government investing in national trunks for power and telecoms, while the state governments and private sector participants focus on in state distribution. 

“We will harness all sources of energy to provide power to our people while giving preference to clean energies.

“We must replan our cities and build-out modern infrastructure across our country so as to reverse the rural urban migration that threatens most of our communities. 

“It makes no sense to allow the brain drain occasioned by the migration of the middle class when all they seek is security, jobs, good and affordable homes, healthcare, constant power, etc. I will make these a standard in all our cities.

“Visionless leadership cannot continue to lead our people astray. We must elevate our millions of farmers to agripreneurs and transition farming to agribusiness. 

“We will secure our farmlands and protect our men and women from those who seek to do them harm. 

“Our farms will no longer be known as killing fields but as the food factory of Africa, providing millions of good paying jobs for the middle class,” he added.