Former Nigeria’ s Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has made it clear that he is not desperate to become Nigeria’s President in 2019.
“If I am desperate, I wouldn’t have stepped down for M.K.O. Abiola in the 1993 presidential race.”
Atiku who was speaking in an interview with BBC Hausa morning programme, said that if Nigerians could follow his political antecedent, they would not see him as a desperate politician.
“In 1993, I contested with M.K.O Abiola. I later withdrew from the race. In 1999, I was elected a governor of Adamawa state, then invited to be Nigeria’s vice president, under Olusegun Obasanjo.”
He recalled that in 2007, he contested against former President, Olusegun Obasanjo “to show the world that I have the right to contest and I did that to satisfy my conscience.
“All the times I have been contesting for the Presidency, I have been opportune only once to be presented to Nigerians as a candidate.”
He said that after that he had always ended up only at the primary election.
“I could have become Nigeria’s President in 2003 when virtually all the state governors then rallied support for me to contest which I declined. I am not desperate to be President as some Nigerians view it.
“As a former Vice President, I am opportune to know things. If I am opportune to be elected as a President, I will accomplish my mission by reviving the economy, by making Nigeria an investors’ haven.
“The present administration discouraged investors into the country, because the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) exchange rate policies are too tedious for investors. CBN has three different exchange rate policies, which is not supposed to be.
“If I’m elected Nigeria’s President, I will expand the nation’s source of wealth to cater for the growing youth population in the country.
“Nigeria can justify my claims, going by the number of youths that are working in my industries across the country.” [myad]
