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| Isaac Wadak |
Wadak reiterates the need for parallel Panel, Commends Atiku’s Economic Blueprint
By Lovins Yakubu
January 26, 2019.
A retired Permanent Secretary in the Plateau
state civil service and stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Isaac
Wadak has observed that for Governor Simon Lalong to have refused to set up a parallel panel to handle the over 70
petitions before the Local Government Elections Trial Tribunal shows that the
governor does not believe in democracy especially, at the grassroot level. Wadak
made this statement in an exclusive chat with African Drum in Jos recently. According
to Wadak, “where your treasure is, lays your heart.
"If Governor Lalong really
believes in democracy at the grass root level he wouldn’t have been taking of
paucity funds because we have seen him using the funds on other non-important
events and that really tells us that he is not interested in democracy at the
grass root.
"It is on record that the petitions before the tribunal ranked the
highest in the history of the state. It is for this reason that the tribunal
wrote the Governor requesting for the establishment of additional parallel
panels to enable the dispensation of the petitions within the stipulated time
but he refused. As a lawyer he should
know better because he has set a dangerous precedent”. He said.
Also
speaking on the Atiku/Obi Presidential ticket and the particular area he would
want them to focus on if given the mandate so as to revamp the economy, expressed his confident in the Atiku’s Presidency to revamp the Economy. He
said he has been following Atiku for quite some time most especially when he
became a strong advocate of restructuring and devolution of power.
“I have also
taken my time to study his economic blueprint and I must tell you that his economy
blueprint is masses oriented or masses centred. His major economic programme is
on small and medium scale which you know would benefit the common people who
constitute over 80 percent of our total population. So, for an Economy
programme to target over 80 percent of the country’s population is indeed
commendable.
It
is obvious that small and medium scale businesses serve as a spring board for
economic development and prosperity most especially in a developing economy
such as ours”.
He
however noted that one key issue that has destroyed our economy is making nonsense
of skills acquired by prospective small and medium entrepreneurs.
He
cited an instance where a person who has acquired skills in tailoring and
provided with starters pack and succeeded in producing mass clothes only for these
materials to be redundant as a result of importation of second-hand clothing is
discouraging.
Wadak
therefore, advised that when Atiku is given the mandate and in the course of
implementing this economy policy, the government must ensure that total band on
second clothing is strictly enforced to encourage small businesses in the
country who according to him, are the engine room of the economy.
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