2023: I will improve on the efforts of the Buhari administration if elected President —Yerima; outlines 3 priority areas

Former Governor of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmed Yerima, has promised to improve on the efforts of the Muhammadu Buhari administration if given the ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 polls and elected Nigeria’s President.

Yerima, who joined the presidential race after disclosing his intention to President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday (May 6), made the promise while speaking with State House Correspondents on his presidential aspiration.

Speaking about his plans to set things straight for Nigeria, Yerima said he would be focusing on three critical areas of needs, namely, insecurity, poverty and ignorance.

“I have three points as well; to fight insecurity, fight poverty, and ignorance,” he said, revealing that he received President Buhari’s blessing to contest for the coveted position.

The former Senator, who caught national attention as governor when he introduced the Shari’a legal code in running Zamfara State, officially declared on Friday afternoon when Sen. Bala Adamu, Director-General Yerima Support Organisations presented the APC Expression of Interest and Nomination forms to contest the 2023 presidential election to him.

He used the occasion to speak more on his agenda, disclosing that if elected the country’s next president in 2023, he would create a ministry of religious affairs to address issues of social and religious decadence in the society.

“We will use our Christian and Islamic clerics to ensure that decorum is brought back to the society.

“We will create a ministry of religious affairs so that we have a minister of Muslim affairs and a minister of Christian affairs.

“We will make sure that the leadership of the Bishops and serving clerics truly appreciate God,” he said.

Yerima said section 38 of the country’s Constitution granted Nigerians freedom of religion, to worship alone or in community with others, in private or in public.

He added that God did not make a mistake to create Nigerians together as Christians and Muslims.

He said if elected as the country’s next president in 2023, his administration would fight issues of ignorance and ensure that the people were properly educated.

“We will have free education and establish a functional students’ loan board to make financial resources available to every poor or rich Nigerian child to access education,” he said.

Yerima commended the Buhari administration for its fight against insecurity and terrorism in the country. According to him, gone are the days when people were screened before entering churches and mosques.

He said he would approve community policing across the federation to address insecurity and acts of terrorism in the country, especially in the North East.

He said the details of his programmes would be made public in due time, adding that “the take home is that Yerima will fight security, poverty and ignorance among Nigerians”.

Adamu, the Director-General Yerima Support Organisations, said the forms were purchased for Yerima through contributions from his different support groups from across the federation.

Present at the event were, Muslim and Christian clerics, Yerima support organisations and women and youth representatives from across the federation.