Senator Anyim Pius Anyim is one of the leading aspirants for the 2023 presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The former President of the Senate and ex-Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), in this interview monitored on Arise TV, speaks on his presidential ambition and how to tackle problems facing the nation, among other issues. UCHENNA INYA reports
You are aspiring to be Nigeria’s president; what will you bring to the table if elected?
I will start by saying that I know what Nigeria’s problems are and what the solutions are. I will say briefly that it is going to be my commitment to rebuild the country and when I talk about rebuilding the country, we have a whole lot of things to talk about, some people will get up and say they will re-calibrate the security architecture, I think they are missing the poin
For me, I believe we have some fundamental issues that we need to address. We need to have a consensus on the structure of the country. We also need a consensus on the dream of the country, the ideals and we also need to have a consensus on developmental systems that will work for us. So for me, the first step I will take is to build concept consensus. People have to understand that it is not a matter of generating policies and throwing it at the people; the success of any policy will depend on how much the people were able to buy into it, and to buy into it, you need to harvest the perspectives of the various segments of the society to a point that there is a consensus.
I want to say that the idea of the consultations which I am presently doing is to harvest the perspectives of the different stakeholders in this country and I want to say that if I am elected as president, this consensus will work for all of us. I am convinced that the 21st century, particularly in the second half of the 21st century we are moving into, the drivers of the economy will be industralisation and manufacturing, talent and innovation and technology. These will be the key drivers of the second half of the 21st century and I will develop these and prepare Nigeria to fit into the fourth industrial revolution.
That will make the economy more dynamic and competitive and it will diversify the economy. I will also focus on the enablers of development, those things that promote development, like security, education, governance issues, and by this I mean consistent policies, regulatory issues and the legal framework. These issues are critical to make the economic pillars work.
If I become the president of Nigeria, I will approach rebuilding Nigeria from these perspectives. The doubts people have on why many administrations have failed is because they just wake up and throw a policy on the people, but I can say that from my experience in government, I have seen how various governments approached these issues, the ones that worked and the ones that didn’t.
Talking about consensus, are we going to have another constitutional conference? Again, why should Nigerians trust you; they know you as a senator from Ebonyi State, who became President of the Senate and then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF)?
