Politics

Atiku: It’s risky to hand over Nigeria’s future to Tinubu, Obi

The presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has urged Nigerians not to vote for his challenger in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, in the 2023 presidential election.

Atiku said it is risky to hand over Nigeria’s future to Tinubu, noting that the APC-led government brought Nigerians to “this sorry situation”.

The former Vice President said this at the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) Presidential Dialogue on the Economy in Lagos on Monday.

“Experience is important and we must avoid the mistakes of the recent past. It is too risky for Nigerians to hand over their future to a green horn or to the National Leader of the very party that brought us to this sorry situation,” Atiku stated.

The PDP presidential flag-bearer said he has a good understanding of the challenges bedevilling Nigeria, stressing that the challenges were self-inflicted and would be reversed by his administration which he said it is “determined”.

“I will come prepared. It is not in my character to be caught off guard both as a businessman and as a public officer. My policy document contains the right policies that will be delivered in a timely manner.

“I am experienced in economic reforms and economic management matters. I have a history of economic reform and economic transformation.

“As head of the economic management team, while I was Vice President, I was instrumental in the design of a private sector revival strategy and advocated for the opening of the economy for private sector investments in a number of sectors. And we made huge progress.

“I’m sure you still remember the good old days of rapid economic growth with stable interest and exchange rates, low inflation, low rates of unemployment, and low poverty headcount. We paid off nearly all of our foreign debt which was crippling the country.

“We created novel institutions to lay the foundation for good governance and accountability, including the Bureau of Public Procurement, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and SERVICOM, whose Golden rule is ‘Serve others as you would like to be served’.

“We developed a formal development agenda, the NEEDS, which also extended to galvanising participation of state and local governments through SEEDS and LEEDS.

“In fact, some of you in this audience worked with me on those reform initiatives,” Atiku added.

The Star