The Presidential Candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has said Nigeria needs him at its critical time and not an inexperienced Peter Obi nor Tinubu whose party brought suffering to Nigerians.
NewsOnline reports that the former vice presidential candidate from 1999 to 2007 under former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration said he has the experience needed to solve the problems the All Progressives Congress (APC) brought on Nigerians through President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Atiku said this on Monday while speaking on his policies and programmes at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) – one of Nigeria’s foremost economic think-tank promoting sustainable, inclusive growth and development with research-based advocacy.
The PDP presidential candidate said the present condition of Nigeria does not require a greenhorn – an indirect reference to the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi – and the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu – a former governor of Lagos State – whose party “brought us to the present situation”.
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The former vice president – who has been contesting for Nigeria’s president since 1992, under Social Democratic Party, before he became a PDP member and vice president from 1999 to 2007 – said he as vice president under Olusegun Obasanjo was at the helm of affairs in implementing economic policies that gave Nigeria its pride of place.
“As head of the economic management team, while I was Vice President, I was instrumental in designing a private sector revival strategy and advocated for the opening of the economy for private sector investments in several sectors. And we made tremendous progress.
“I’m sure you still remember the good old days of rapid economic growth with stable interest and exchange rates, low inflation, low unemployment rates and low poverty headcount. We paid off nearly all of our foreign debt which was crippling the country,” he said.
Making an indirect reference to Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Bolat Tinubu of the ruling APC, Atiku added, “It will be dangerous for Nigeria to relinquish their future to a greenhorn or the national leader of the same party that brought us to this very sorry situation.
No one should downplay the enormity of the task ahead. I have a good knowledge of the challenges facing Nigeria. I will come prepared and experienced.”
