By Lukman Olabiyi
Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has held an interactive session with leaders of Corporate Nigeria, reiterated the position that his blueprint is most suited for the socio-economic and political recovery of the country.
Prominent leaders of Corporate Nigeria, including Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Jim Ovia, Oba Otudeko, Aig-Imoukhuede, among others, attended the meeting held in Lagos yesterday.
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 said: “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 per cent 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 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, “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 and make the country bounce back.”
On the issue of security, Atiku said that his proposal would 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 acknowledged 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.
Meanwhile, Atiku also yesterday assured that dialogue with G5 governors elected on the platform of the party and some other aggrieved stalwarts was in progress.
Atiku disclosed this to journalists after his roundtable discussion with Nigeria’s creative cultural and innovative experts in Lagos.
The PDP presidential candidate said he was very optimistic that the crisis rocking his party would soon be over.
During his discussion with Nigeria’s creative, cultural and innovative experts and stakeholders, Atiku pledged to support the industry with necessary incentives, if elected into power in the 2023 general election.
According to him, the industry has what it takes to crash the unemployment rate and generate huge revenue for the country if it got necessary support.
He said the industry is like agriculture in terms of job creation and revenue generation but it has not gotten the necessary support from government, which he noted has made it difficult to progress.