An America political risk consultancy firm, Eurasia Group, has said that the President candidate of the Nigeria’s main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, will look to enriching himself and his cronies if he wins the presidential elections holding on February 16.
In its annual report for 2019, the group described Atiku as a “gerontocrat who would focus on enriching himself and his cronies, avoiding the difficult and politically unpopular tasks necessary for reform.”
Eurasia Group, in the report published on December 7, said however that Atiku, because of “his better health and keener intellect” compared to President Muhammadu Buhari, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), “would create a brief, superficial boost to the country’s image.
“But it would also pose the risk of a return to an even more rent-seeking governing style,” the group added.
Eurasia Group’s Top 10 risks report put Nigeria as the 10th risk with a focus on the nation’s February 2019 elections.
Atiku, who was Nigeria’s Vice President for eight years, will be contending the February election with about 59 candidates with his main contender being the incumbent President Buhari.
He has continued to tout his experience in government and business as being what the country needs, citing his role in overseeing economic reforms amid solid growth under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
His proposed policy program has emphasized job creation, and he has promised to implement liberal economic policies if elected, including scrapping the current system of multiple exchange rates that he describes as “anti-business.”
However, critics consider Atiku as a corrupt figure, a perception that dates from his time in Obasanjo’s administration when he allegedly accumulated significant holdings in oil and banking enterprises and built a sizeable real estate portfolio.
Source: The Guardian
