18th October, 2017
The All Progressives Congress (APC) urged World Bank to concentrate on the development of the North-East, saying it supported President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to the bank.
The party took the position in a meeting of its National Working Committee (NWC) with governors and legislators elected on its platform on Wednesday in Abuja.
Briefing newsmen at the end of the closed-door meeting, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said the party subscribed to special rehabilitation attention for the North-East after the insurgency devastation.
He said that the request of the president to the bank was extensively discussed at the meeting, adding that Buhari did not make the request out of any bias.
Abdullahi explained that the import of the president’s request was in recognition of the level of devastation of the region by the activities of Boko Haram.
“When the president was asking the World Bank to focus attention on the development of the North-East, he had in mind the necessary reconstruction that needs to happen in that part of the country,’’ he said.
He noted that the devastation was worse in the Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, adding that the president’s request was not intended to divide the country or show preference for one region of the country against the other.
The spokesman said that APC believed that as long as the North-East continued to suffer devastation and represented a dark spot in the country`s human development indices, there was need to direct special attention to it.
Also speaking, Bauchi Governor, Mohammed Abubakar, said the meeting also discussed forthcoming Anambra governorship election, and received a report of the party’s committee on true federalism, especially on its recent public sittings.
He said that the meeting also deliberated on the timetable for the meetings of various organs of the party and agreed on dates.
The governor added that the meeting also discussed the amendment of the party’s Constitution ahead of the 2019 general elections, with a view to strengthening it.
He maintained that the party would always abide by its Constitution in every aspect.
He, however, said that Buhari had not accused governors of being insensitive to the plight of the common man with regards to non-payment of workers’ salaries as reported.
“The president in his usual fashion always, wherever you meet him officially or privately, he will always express his concern on the plight of the downtrodden Nigerians and that was exactly what he did.
“He did not direct any accusation at the governors because the governors had actually utilized most of the intervention of the Federal Government towards payment of salaries.