The New Agenda for Positive Change, a civil society organization has
taken a swipe at the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for reportedly holding a strategy
session with members of his team in Dubai, UAE.
The Dubai meeting had in attendance, Atiku’s running mate, Peter Obi and the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
Also
in the meeting were ex-Ogun Governor, Gbenga Daniel, ex-aide to former
President, Reno Omokri, Bayelsa East Senator, Ben Bruce among others.
Reacting, however, the group said the development was a sad reminder of Atiku’s extravagant lifestyle.
Raymond
Clarke Amuna, President of the group, said the development was an
indication to his dangerous tendency to hand Nigeria over to foreign
interests, with Dubai being his latest preference.
Amuna in the
statement challenged the PDP candidate to explain to Nigerians how he
intends to run a domestic-oriented economy for the masses with the kind
of lavish lifestyle of taking his strategy team with over 400 members to
Dubai.
He warned that a vote for Atiku would definitely signal a
return to the era where even bottled water is imported into the country
and Nigerians will again be conditioned to believe that only things
that are foreign are good.
According to him, “Each time Atiku
Abubakar considers slinking to Dubai he should be mindful of how the
opulence of the desert city warps his sense of proprietary. He has never
returned from his Dubai trips lucid enough to accept the reality in
Nigeria possibly because his guilty conscience pricks him to know that
the PDP could have done better for Nigeria in its 16 years of misrule.
“There
are various exotic venues in Nigeria that he could have used and have
members of his team spend money to boost the local economy but he
decided to expend his N20 million annual income in ferrying Peter Obi,
Secondus and other clowns in his circus to Dubai for the strategy
session. It is therefore not surprising that his team issued the
statement castigating the government for planning to use the proceeds of
privatization to fund the national budget.
“The first thing of
note is that Atiku Abubakar, a onetime Vice President (1999 to 2007) and
by default the Chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC) at the
time, was the originator of privatization or in layman’s term selling
government owned enterprises, businesses and assets. It was under him
that the chant of “government has no business in business” or
“government is incapable of managing businesses” first gained ground and
have remained a part of our collective psyche today.
“This is
why even as the nation continues to explore the diversification of its
revenue source under President Muhammadu Buhari, people have been
conditioned to the point that no one is thinking of creating enterprises
that will address unemployment and revenue sources simultaneously.
“Secondly,
Atiku Abubakar spoke from experience. He is not sure that the national
assets in question would be allocated to him and his cronies as it was
done under his watch when he held sway over the privatization of most of
the country’s assets.
“He is therefore definitely waiting until
such a time when he is certain that he can acquire the same assets for
pittance. His media organization ranted on about how the assets to be
sold were built by the PDP without being able to list a single one of
them, which implies that the PDP candidate is claiming what he did not
achieve.”
Just yesterday, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Personal
Assistant on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie, rubbished the meeting
between the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Presidential candidate, Atiku
Abubakar and his campaign team in Dubai.
