Dotun Roy
Centre for Democracy and Development has organised its 4th Edition of political debate between the two contending political party come this February General election. The 4th Edition of political debate which held today, 22 January in Abuja focused its bone of contention on Water, Power and housing. The debate was coordinated by Imoni Amarere of Daar Communications/AIT.
The first and second edition of this debate which had been on insecurity and oil and gas respectively were quite revealing and educative.
The debate which lasted for more 2 hours had two prominent political representative from the two major political parties in Nigeria: APC and PDP. Dr Kachi Ononuju, a chieftain of the party and Alhaji Layi Mohammed of APC debated on the way forward in these 3 major issues which would play pivotal role in driving socio-economic development.
Availability of the land is one major factor in housing. Until we address the issues of Land Reforms in Nigeria, we cannot successfully implement and solve any issue related to housing. Therefore APC has included in its manifesto restructuring the Land Use Act as the right step to solving housing problems all over the country said Alhaji Layi Mohammed, APC spokesperson. He further argued countering the Dr Kachi PDP spokesperson’s opinion of bringing the price of building materials down to an affordable level.
In the area of availability/provision of clean portable water, Dr Kachi, spokesperson for PDP said provision clean portable water for the popuplace is one paramount agenda that PDP has been taking seriously in its service delivery in last 5 years, promise to improve upon in the course of its reigns. On the other hand, Alhaji Layi Mohammed posited that APC has included in its manifesto to embark on a 10 years water project in collaboration with European Union, this is in direction towards improved water, sanitation and hygiene across the country.
