The presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, on Monday, promised to lift over 80m people out of poverty if voted into office in the 2019 general elections.

She therefore challenged her rivals to “bring up their doable programmes to better the lots of citizens.”

Ezekwesili, a former Minister of Education, threw this challenge in a statement issued by the Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili 2019 Presidential Campaign Council, obtained by The Punch in Jos.

According to the campaign organisation, watchers of the forthcoming general elections in Nigeria had expressed the view that Ezekwesili remained the most prominent woman to run for the office of president in Nigeria’s history.

While describing her pledge of lifting over 80m Nigerians out of poverty through human capital development and technological innovation as unprecedented, the organisation said her plan to lift majority of Nigerians out of extreme poverty stood out as the most exceptional strategy in the run-up to next year’s general elections in the country.

Ezekwesili said, “Beyond the rhetoric that is currently being engaged in during this election season, it is clear to us that getting people out of debilitating poverty is the single most crucial assignment that we have. That is why we adopt this as the cornerstone of the #Oby4President campaign.”

While lamenting that most aspirants to public office in the country were seeking political power for its sake, the campaign organisation said, “This position is premised on Oby Ezekwesili’s informed belief that only a prosperous people can take the nation into the future we all dream of.”

She contended that since research had indicated that over 40 per cent of cases of extreme poverty could be found in sub-Saharan Africa by year 2050, “to turn around these tragic projections, we need to drastically change how we do things as a country. We cannot continue to vote in the incompetent leaders who put us into this poverty while expecting change to happen.”