A presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and founder of Leadership Newspapers, Sam Nda-Isaiah, on Tuesday said he would make the unity of Nigeria a top priority of his administration if elected into office as president next year in order for the country, which has been divided along ethnic lines, to make progress.

This is just as he vowed to spare no sacred cows in prosecuting the war against all types of crimes in Nigeria, saying no matter the nature of the offence, he would ensure as the president, that every criminal is caught and brought to book, unlike the present situation where crimes go unsolved and unpunished daily.

Nda-Isaiah made these promises while delivering his speech during an event to declare his intention to contest for president in 2015 in Minna, Niger State.

He stated that to achieve security, his plan, which is highlighted among the “Big Ideas” he is bringing to office if elected, includes dealing with all Nigerians with sincerity, justice, fairness and charity in order to make them unite in moving the country forward.

On security, apart from ensuring that all crimes and criminals face the full wrath of the law, he would adequately equip and train the military, expand the size of the police force and create special forces drawn from all services to respond to difficult security situations and relieve the military of its present role of first line defence and place it in a position to not only lead Nigeria's defence, but that of Africa as a whole.

“The first thing our government will do is to unite the whole of Nigeria as quickly as possible. As I have said in several times, Nigeria is currently too divided to be called a nation.

“No country ever makes progress with the kind of divisions we see in our country today. Confronting this challenge is the simplest thing a serious leader can do. There is no magic about it. All a leader needs to do is be sincere about it.

“I will need to unite the whole of Nigeria behind me as quickly as possible in order to be able to work the big ideas that will change this nation forever.

“Any president who governs his country with fairness, justice and charity to all will have no problem uniting his people, no matter how disparate they may be.

“Under my presidency, all crimes will be punished, no matter how long it will take to apprehend the criminals. We shall send a clear message to criminals that whoever commits a crime will be apprehended and brought to justice according to the law – whoever they are, no matter where they come from and no matter how long it takes.

“I will not be that president who would say that people are killing themselves because they don’t like me. I will not only be in office, I will also be in power for the good of the majority of the people. All murderers will face the full weight of the law,” he promised.

Elaborating further, Nda-Isaiah said with the business of uniting the nation, he shall also quickly secure Nigeria and Nigerians, adding: “Security is the most elementary duty of any leader.

“I will do this by retooling the entire security and intelligence infrastructure of the country and by being that president who takes his duty as commander-in-chief seriously.

“Luckily for us, Nigeria still has some of the best soldiers, policemen and intelligence service personnel anywhere in the world. All they need is competent leadership, training and re-training as well as 21st century equipment to meet the challenges of the modern world.

“One of our major problems is that we are still using the 1960s and 1970s methods and equipment to fight today’s crimes.”

The presidential aspirant also pledged to expand the various security services to match the challenges of the country’s current size.

“We are going to modernise and increase our police strength from the current 370,000 to at least 1,000,000 immediately and then gradually grow it to at least 4,000,000.

“We shall do most of the recruiting from among the millions of graduates that roam the streets in search of jobs. A serious nation of 178 million people should not have just 370,000 policemen,” he stated.

In recognition of what the increasing number of unemployed youths in the country portends, the founder of the Leadership Group said he has big ideas on how to create jobs for them, adding: “Our government will create an army of entrepreneurs all over the country.

“We shall create five million small businesses in the first instance. A small business creates between two and five new jobs – that means potentially creating 25 million new jobs. That’s a heck of a big idea!”

He described Nigeria’s current level of unemployment as a bomb waiting to explode. “By conservative estimates, there are 48 million unemployed Nigerians and a troubling 54 per cent of the Nigerian youths are unemployed.

“Even though the economy has grown, poverty rates have increased, precisely because the sectors driving the growth are not the ones in which the majority of Nigerians are accommodated.

“We must, therefore, bring more youths into agriculture, online business, manufacturing and housing. Since 48 million jobs are not immediately available, they would have to be created. Only big ideas can solve a challenge this magnitude,” he said.

He went further to add that his government shall construct one million new housing units yearly, for two reasons: one, to bridge the housing deficit and, two, to create jobs while noting it has been estimated that building one million housing units can create up to 30 million new jobs as several people including engineers, architects, plumbers, block makers, insurance companies, mortgage banks, estate agents, cement, tile and paint sellers, food vendors, furniture manufacturers, etc, would be engaged.

The presidential aspirant also said the big idea his government would bring into the area of sports will be to create a soccer economy. “Nigeria has talent and Nigerians have passion for the game. There is no reason we should not profit from this as so many other countries do. We can organise ourselves to achieve this easily,” he stated.

While promising to improve the current power situation in the country, he also promised to diversify the economy to focus on non-oil investments scattered all over the country because oil would soon lose its critical global value due to improvements in fracking technology among the biggest consumers of oil.

Addressing concerns that he lacks prior experience in public service, he noted that everyone is now in a race for the future, though nobody has the experience of the future, while stressing that he has been able to build businesses from the scratch to becoming a successful brand.

“All experiences people claim to have are experiences of the past. And our uninspiring past cannot be a guide for our future, as we need a clean break from our past. Nigeria should be in a race to the First World and what is needed more than anything else is vision.

“I find my lack of experience in government a strength instead because I have not been part of the rot of the past. In any case, I have the most important experience, which is being a serial entrepreneur. I have created institutions from Ground Zero.

“That is the most important experience anyone who wants to be president needs at the moment. In fact, a lack of entrepreneurial experience among those who lead us has been one of our problems so far.

“And talking about experience, you cannot have more experience than President Jonathan. He has been a deputy governor, a governor, a vice-president and acting president before becoming president, and see what this huge experience has done to our dear country. So much for experience,” he said.

Nda-Isaiah pointed out that some of the greatest leaders the world has had had no government experience before assuming power.

“The South African presidency was Nelson Mandela’s first job in government. The prime minister’s job was Lee Kuan Yew’s first job in government. And by the time Tony Blair became prime minister of Great Britain in 1997, he had never worked in government. Ditto for David Cameron.

“Most importantly, we intend to change how government works. Governments even in the best of countries, but especially in our country, have a problem of inefficiency, bureaucracy and corruption directly impeding well-intended plans.

“To change our country, we must change the way government works first. Our government will achieve this by the appointment of CEO-style ministers and heads of government agencies with clear targets and commensurate salaries and bonuses,” he said.

We have seen how leadership has transformed countries ranging from small countries like Singapore, Rwanda and South Korea to the big countries like Brazil, India and China. I believe that, with faith in God, you and I together can keep this appointment with destiny,” he said.

On the Jonathan presidency, he described it as a failure, adding that Jonathan had been unable to perform the most basic of responsibilities of any leader.

According to Nda-Isaiah, the president’s failure to perform his duties had turned Nigeria into a laughing stock, noting: “President Jonathan has been totally unable to perform the most basic responsibility of any leader, which is provision of security to the people of his country. Nigeria has been degraded to unimaginable levels. We are now the laughing stock of countries we used to laugh at.”

Nda-Isaiah also lamented about the $1 billion loan the president was going to borrow to fight insurgency, saying it is outrageous and a way of stealing the people's money.

“Nigeria fought a civil war and did the post war reconstruction without taking a loan,” he said.

Also speaking at the occasion, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who is also an APC presidential aspirant, said any of the party's presidential aspirants was more capable than Jonathan.

“Any of the APC aspirants is better than Jonathan. Whoever wins the party primary is better than President Jonathan.”

Atiku, who described Nda-Isaiah as a personal friend, said all the aspirants in APC had resolved to support who ever emerges.

"We (APC aspirants) are united. We have resolved to support whoever emerges. We are not fighting each other. That is why I am here today. Our target is to rescue the country from the mis-rule of the PDP,” he said.

Rivers State Governor Chibuike Ameachi was also at the declaration and accused the security agencies of becoming the armed wing of the PDP.

Speaking on the withdrawal of the security aides attached to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, Amaechi stated that the security agencies were no longer doing their constitutional job of protecting the lives of Nigerians.

“I heard today that the Department of State Security Service (DSS) have withdrawn their men from the speaker, a few days after the police withdrew their men leaving him defenceless.
“The police and SSS have no right to do that as far as he is still the speaker, only the court and National Assembly can give a order like that.

“This goes to show that the SSS and the police are for the PDP, they are the armed wing of PDP and we have to make a departure from this abuse of constitutional powers,” Ameachi said.

He called on Nigerians to vote out PDP and accept APC as the party that would bring about the needed change in the nation.