Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar held an interactive session with leaders of corporate Nigeria, reinstating the position that his blueprint is most suited for the socio-economic and political recovery of the country.
The meeting, which was held in Lagos on Saturday, was attended by prominent leaders of corporate Nigeria, including Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Jim Ovia, Oba Otudeko, Aig Imoukhuede, among others.
The interactive session, which took the form of panel discussion, included Atiku’s running mate and Delta State governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa.
The session, which was moderated by popular financial expert, Tilewa Adebajo, focused on six thematic topics including security, fiscal and monetary matters, power, oil and gas, infrastructure and manufacturing.
Atiku in his opening remarks at the event noted that, “there are facts about the current state of our economy that should dictate to us whether we should continue with the present reality or move far away from it.
“The first is the National Bureau of Statistics data which continuously shows that we are declining in critical sectors of the productive areas of the economy.
“The second is the report that 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor which means that more than 60 percent of our people are not just poor, but equally lack access to education and good healthcare.”
Atiku noted that his engagement with the private sector is to forge partnership with corporate leaders and seek their intervention in reversing the trend.
“These facts are the reasons why we are engaging with the private sector today, and it is an engagement that seeks a partnership with the private sector to create more jobs and their intervention,” Atiku remarked.
The chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council and governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Emmanuel Udom, also in his remarks said that, “it is good that we have the business community to listen to our candidate live and hear from him how he plans to recover Nigeria from lost grounds and make the country bounce back.”
On the issue of security, Atiku said that his proposal will have a two-pronged approach on the issue.
“The first approach will be to expand the numbers of security personnel, train and equip them to restore law and order.
“In the medium range, we intend to involve state governments that are willing and can afford to have state police to do so.
“This will require constitutional reviews and we must also secure safeguards that will ensure that those state police institutions are not abused.”
Responding to the issue of security around oil and gas installations, Atiku referred the question to his running mate, Okowa, who he acknowledges has done very well in security installations in his state and making Delta State, the highest oil producing state in the country.
The PDP Vice Presidential candidate noted that it is important to carry the communities along in any security apparatus that is being considered.
“On the issue of security around oil installations, it is important that we understand what the issues are and those issues have to be situated properly.
“The engagement with the local communities is very important and while doing that, we don’t leave those communities behind in terms of infrastructure and development, which creates hope and partnership with them,” Okowa said.
On the fiscal and monetary regulation, Atiku promises a convergence of the foreign exchange market, ensure price stability and promote trade deals that will inject more foreign exchange to the economy, as well as ensuring the independence of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
On power, he noted that his administration will pursue short, medium and long term projections in the power sector.
Picture caption: Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and former Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007, Chairman of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia and former Senate President President, Dr Bukola Saraki at the meeting of the PDP presidential candidate with corporate Nigeria leaders in Lagos on Saturday.
Tinubu is nightmarish to all his attackers.
It is the other way around. All Tinubu supporters are always praying for him not to gaffe. So Tinubu is a nightmare for his supporters.
Tinubu has been around in Nigeria politics for over three decades. Evidence abound that the APC presidential candidate is suffering multifaceted sicknesses especially those health issues associated with old age. I can swear with my index finger that 99.9% of the people trying to foist Tinubu on us are either ethnic bigot or self-seeking politicians who hope to latch onto Tinubu’s incapacities to capture power and unleash the most cruel form of leadership terror on Nigerians.
Ahhh you people are just so wicked, cruel, heartless, evil, soulless and I don’t even know how to describe you anymore. Why are you so blind to see. Is it not very very very very obvious that this man will be incapable to rule us, with his health challenges and memory loss. Why are you so keen on imposing him on us with the many problems we have on ground already? Why!!!! Crying
Those who feel that Tinubu is still entitled to his privacy and that electorate do not have a right to monitor him closely, simply don’t understand what democracy is very well. They are yet to fully recover from the damage that protracted military rule did to our national psyche. To make it very clear to them TINUBU FORFEITED HIS RIGHT TO PRIVACY THE VERY MOMENT HE OFFERED HIMSELF TO CONTEST ELECTION AND SEEK THE PEOPLE’S MANDATE. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE HIS POTENTIAL EMPLOYERS THEN HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO SCRUTINIZE EVERY ASPECT OF HIS LIFE (HIS GENEALOGY, AGE, HEALTH STATUS, BELIEF, MANNER OF SPEAKING, SOCIAL LIFE ETC).
He still has a choice to withdraw back into his cocoon and no longer and escape prying eyes, by withdrawing his candidature. Anything short of that, he has not even seen anything. Even ‘IF’ he eventually wins, the allegations against him will continue to dog him, just like Donald Trump.
Why cant we see genuine reasons as to why it is dangerous to allow Tinubu to win this election. He is not mentally and physically stable. It is not about any of us but about the future of Nigeria and Nigerians. The sharks are in waiting , they will remove him by raising one allegation abd then we go back to square one again. Are you satisfied by the live you are living now?.