29th March, 2011
Vice President Namadi Sambo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was the only vice-presidential candidate who honoured the debate Monday evening organised by the Nigeria election Debate Group.
Those who did not turn up included John Oyegun of the All Nigeria People Party, Tunde Bakare of the Congress for Progressive Change and Fola Adeola of the Action Congress of Nigeria.
The debate which started at exactly 7.30pm saw only Sambo answering questions since the other candidates did not turn up.
Answering several questions posed by the panelists, he said he and President Jonathan were the best candidates that the country could afford to produce at this point in time.
According to him, the President is a man of his words and has the quality of sincerity.
Sambo pegged their administration on the provision of power and education for the people of the country.
“We have put the vision 202020 in place and we have realised that the issue is with power supply.
“Nigeria must have the right capacity and the right people to move this country forward.
“Before 1999 there was no investment in the power sector, but today we are investing heavily in power.
“Seventy per cent of our people engage in farming but te unfortunate thing is that they can only grow produce during the rainy season.
“We have started work on this and designed several schemes that would help provide water and address that missing factor to make our farmers productive throughout the year.
Continuing, he said: “we have revived the railway. Mr. President commissioned the railway in Lagos and took one from there to Ogun.
Also in Kaduna state,
“New rail lines are being constructed. This is the kind of transformation we are telling Nigerians we would put in place and we are already doing this.
“We are reviewing the system of pension where pensioners would be sure they would not have problems about their pensions.
“We are working with the officials of local government to see that children go to school.”
According to him, it has been discovered that the country has 9.5 million almajiris and the government was making moves to see that they are given western education.
By Eromosele Ebhomele