Recently, Atiku Abubakar has formally joined the opposition
Peoples Democratic Party, more than a week after he dumped the ruling All
Progressives Congress.
The former vice-president made the announcement on
Facebook within the last hour.
He said the complaints he had with the PDP, under
which he was vice-president from 1999-2007, had been resolved, laying the
groundwork for his return.
Mr. Abubakar is expected to contest the 2019
presidential election.
After consultations, Atiku joins PDP
Abuja, Nigeria, 03 November, 2017: Former Vice
President Atiku Abubakar, has announced his return to the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP).
The announcement on Sunday on Facebook Live followed
consultations the former Vice President hadwith party leaders and
stakeholders from across the country.
Please find below transcript of the announcement.
Also attached are pictures from the announcement.
“Hello,
my name is Atiku Abubakar.
I
am speaking to you today on Facebook Live as I want to reach as many of our
young people as possible as I have an important announcement to make about the
future of Nigeria.
As
it is you, our youths, who represent the future of our nation.
I
have found in my travels across the country that whenever I get into
conversationswith young people their number one concern is whether they will be
able to get a job for without a job they have no means of sustaining themselves
or begin a family.
And
without the security of a job we cannot have security in our country.
So
without jobs there is no future for you or for Nigeria.
And
I also know as a parent that the older generation is also concerned about jobs
for their children and, too often today, for themselves as well.
Creating
jobs is something I know about as I have created over 50,000 direct jobs and
250,000 indirectjobs in my own State of Adamawa.
And
I also know how the Government can help create the right environment for
businesses to create jobs. When I was Vice President in 1999 I was
responsible for liberalising the telecomms sector which enabled us to increase
the number of people who could access a phone from less than 1 million then to
over 100 million today.
This
transformation resulted in the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs
from the top-up card vendors you see on every street corner to the many new
businesses that fed off the mobile phone revolution.
Some
of you may know that I was elected Vice President under the banner of the PDP,
which is the political party I had helped to found some ten years before.
And
some of you may also know that I left the PDP four years ago when I believed it
was no longer aligned to the principles of equity, democracy and social justice
upon which we had founded it.
I
joined the APC as I had hoped it would be the new force that would help improve
life for our people and I was excited about the party’s manifesto to create 3
million new jobs a year.
The
result has not been the change people had been promised or voted for, as in the
last two years almost 3 million Nigerians have lost their jobs.
And
today with a record 25% of people aged 18-25 unemployed I can see how difficult
it is for our youths to find a job.
The
key to creating jobs is a strong economy and that is what we are currently
lacking.
So
today I want to let you know that I am returning home to the PDP as the issues
that led me to leave it have now been resolved and it is clear that the APC has
let the Nigerian people, and especially our young people, down.
But
rather than giving a long political speech on this matter I thought it would be
more helpful to invite you to ask me questions and share with you my answers.
You
can post your questions on my Facebook page:facebook.com.atiku.org
I
see we have a question from Jide
Sir,
how can you know what young people want when you are not a youth?
I
meet young people every day. I have children and grandchildren and most of my
employees are youths.
The
key to knowing what young people want is to listen to them. I’m good at that.
Sometimes when I am on the phone with my kids they ask me are you still there,
because I just listen to them without interrupting.
Young
people are on social media and so I go there. They tell me that their number
one challenge is jobs.
Terrorism,
militancy, kidnapping, and other forms of exuberance they may lead to
criminality are a symptom of the disease of joblessness.
Once
you can get Nigeria working again and get Nigerians working again, youth
restiveness will ease and gradually disappear.
This
question is from Babangida
You
have so many businesses and you employ thousands of Nigerians. Would you be
able to focus on political leadership when you have such a large business empire?
Well
Babangida, you see, leadership must be separated from management. I lead my
businesses. I do not manage them. I have qualified managers managing them
including some in their early 20s.
As
a leader, you provide direction and then you bring in skilled people and
inspire them to implement your roadmap to getting to the destination of your
direction.
So
in answer to your question, I am more into leadership and this gives me the
clarity I need to take in the larger picture.
The
minister of information recently said the PDP will never regain power. Why go
back to a party that will never regain power?
Nobody
knows the future other than God and to dictate what the future will be is not
within man’s purview.
But
it is about Nigeria not about power. Power for powers own sake breeds arrogance
and arrogance makes men say things like that.
All
I am saying is that we need a party that speaks to national sentiments not
regional ones. We need a party that can make all Nigerians one till we can
boldly say that we are all brothers and sisters with only one mother Nigeria.
A
question from Favour
Sir
what are your views on the #EndSARS movement?
We
cannot be outraged that Nigerians and other African migrants are being mistreated
in Libya and then we go ahead and mistreat our people back home. I am very
abreast with the #EndSARS issue because my young followers on Social Media keep
me very much in the loop.
Whether
it is how SARS treats Nigerians or how we treat each other, we are sending a
message to the outside world. We can’t expect foreigners to treat our people
better than we treat them.
We
must set the minimum standard required for the treatment of Nigerians worldwide
by the way we treat our people domestically. Our charity must begin at home.
On
this issue, I call on the Inspector General of Police as a concerned Nigerian
to intervene, and I know that the Nigerian Police as a disciplined and well
organized force will take action to address this issue. It will go a long way
to improving Nigeria’s rating in the global ranking of Police Forces next year
because this year, they were wrongfully ranked as the worst.
Thank
you to everyone who asked me a question and I am sorry that time does not
permit me to answer each one. I will be travelling the country in
the coming months and will be listening to the concerns of our people in every
region.
I
came from a humble background and thank God for the opportunities that Nigeria
has given me to build a network of successful businesses.
I
am dedicated to a Nigeria where everyone lives in a country of opportunity
where there are no limits to what they can become.
Good
afternoon and thank you for listening.”
"Please, my Dear Viewers, We will like to welcome your comments...
Signed: 9jasiren Team.
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