AND THE BATTLE BEGINS! ATIKU AND BUHARI GOES FOR EACH OTHER’S NECK
Read Time:4 Minute, 33 Second
Joseph Omoniyi
Following the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari and former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar as the candidates of the two major political parties, the All Progressives Congress, APC and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the two camps have began attacks on each other ahead of the 2019 presidential election, with Atiku throwing the first punch, saying the President was never a successful business man.
In a statement from his media office in Abuja on Tuesday, Atiku said, “It is left for Nigerians to judge, but even a blind person can see that Nigeria has been ‘soaked in blood’ ever since she was unfortunate enough to have fallen under the leadership of a man whose words are destructive and never productive.”
“We wish to remind APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, that Atiku Abubakar is not like President Buhari who has never run a successful private business throughout his life.
“Unlike Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar is an expert job creator who has founded many successful and thriving businesses including the American University of Nigeria, Yola; a microfinance bank that has moved 45,000 families out of poverty and Rica Gado, a livestock feed company that has significantly reduced instances of herdsmen/farmers clashes by providing a business-friendly solution instead of asking Nigerians to give up their lands for cattle ranching or face death, as the Buhari government did.”
The statement added that unlike President Buhari, Atiku does not believe Nigerian youths are lazy. “How could he when 25,000 out of his 50,000 employees are youths,”? he asked.
It urged the Buhari Presidency and the APC to mention even one successful private endeavour that the President had successfully run.
“And by private enterprises, we are not referring to 150 cows that never increase in number, year in year out,” the statement added.
“Some of Atiku Abubakar’s achievements as Nigeria’s Vice President are that as head of the National Council of Privatisation, he superintended over the GSM revolution that saw Nigeria go from 50,000 to 100 million GSM lines, has added 500,000 direct jobs to the Nigerian economy and attracted $27bn to our GDP. Our question to President Buhari and the APC is how many jobs have they created?
“Another of Abubakar’s achievements is the successful privatisation of many public enterprises that hitherto consumed government resources without yielding a profit. In response, we ask President Buhari how many loopholes in public expenditure has he plugged? The spectacular failure of the 419 Nigeria Air is still fresh in the memory of Nigerians,” the statement concluded.
Meanwhile, the Buhari’s team has also returned the blow, with an accusation of corrupt practices against the former vice-president, saying, Atiku made money through illegal means and cheating the system.
In an interview with The Punch on Tuesday, the Director of Media for the Buhari Campaign Organisation, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), said, Atiku was running private businesses as a customs officer in contravention of public service rules.
The senior advocate said Atiku’s only successful business was Integrated Logistics Services Nigeria Limited, popularly known as INTEL.
Keyamo said, “Firstly, the myth about Atiku’s business acumen is one of the biggest and fattest lies ever sold to Nigerians. He has never run a successful business. He only has one company, which is a cash cow through which he invests in other things and that company is known as INTELS.
“He acquired shares in INTELS in 1982 when he was still a customs officer which was in clear violation of the code of conduct for public officers where he acquired shares in a company that had something to do with the customs and government.
“The company is not run in a competitive manner but a monopolistic manner where all other persons are totally shut out. All governments in this country until now had been compromised by this company until now.”
He said Atiku’s university ran on public funds. He challenged Atiku to prove that the money used in running the institution was not government’s own.
“The company is not run in a competitive manner but a monopolistic manner where all other persons are totally shut out. All governments in this country until now had been compromised by this company until now.”
He said Atiku’s university ran on public funds. He challenged Atiku to prove that the money used in running the institution was not government’s own.
Keyamo said the achievements recorded by the Obasanjo/Atiku administration were not extraordinary.
He said the boom in the telecommunications sector occasioned by the introduction of the GSM during the Obasanjo/Atiku era was not peculiar to Nigeria but happened simultaneously in many African countries.
The Buhari campaign director added that the debt forgiveness of $18bn under the Obasanjo was part of a mere G8 directive and was not limited to Nigeria.
Keyamo said although Buhari was not as rich as his opponent, the President had shown that he understood how to effectively run an economy.
“He has managed an economy effectively even in the time of economic recession occasioned by a terrible crash in oil prices. Under him, foreign reserves increased; he inspired investors to invest in critical infrastructure.
“He refused to retrench workers. He also released the biggest money so far for capital projects. In 2016, he released N1.2tn in capital releases and in 2017 they released N1.5tn despite an economic recession.”
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