Abuja – Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar on Monday said former<\/p>\n
President Olusegun Obasanjo had the right to endorse whoever he wanted for
\nthe 2015 presidential elections.<\/p>\n
Atiku said this in Abuja at a news conference organised by his media
\norganisation to intimate the public of a policy review summit coming up at
\nthe Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta on Oct. 27.<\/p>\n
Debunking claims that the three-day conference was a ploy to get Nigeria\u2019s
\nex-president to endorse him for the next general elections, Atiku said the
\nchoice of Abeokuta for the conference was because his media organisation
\nfelt each time they went to Lagos, the people\u2019s daily routine was usurped.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cAbeokuta is a more serene atmosphere for thinking and suits our
\npurpose. It is not a strategy for endorsement.<\/p>\n
\u201cObasanjo is in the PDP; he has a right to endorse anyone he wants as
\npresident but you will agree with me that the ultimate choice lies with
\nthe electorate.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
According to him, the purpose of the news conference is to announce the
\nupcoming summit and fine-tune the elemental details of a document he
\ncalled the Atiku 2015 Policy Document.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe draft policy to be reviewed was drawn up within the context of the
\nmanifesto of our party, the APC. This document provides an overview of our
\npolicy position.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main thrust is the explicit bid to modify the way the machinery of
\nFederal Government works by clarifying and streamlining MDAs remits and
\nresponsibilities, removing overlaps and operational redundancies.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Atiku said the key policy areas to be reviewed were employment generation
\nand wealth creation, infrastructure and power.<\/p>\n
Others are education and skills acquisition, security, citizenship and
\ngovernance, agriculture and food security as well as the Niger Delta and
\nNorth-East re-integration.<\/p>\n
He said the youth should not rely on government for jobs, adding that
\ngovernment was structured in a way that wealth continued to circulate at
\nthe top echelon of society.<\/p>\n
\u201cNigerians should not rely on the government for jobs as the government
\ndoes not have money to do everything. We continue to make the mistake in
\nthis country that government can create the jobs we want.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne way I will solve this is to sit down with various heads of the
\nprivate sector, who are the major creator of jobs, give them tax rebates
\nand tell them to create half a million jobs for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t forget that the millions of youth employed will pay tax and so
\nwhatever I lose from giving tax rebate I\u2019ll gain again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we stimulate the private sector, millions of jobs will be created and
\nit will encourage direct flow of investment into the country,\u2019\u2019 Atiku
\nsaid.
\nOn privatisation, Atiku said: \u201cI did not privatise refineries neither did
\nI privatise NITEL; the National Council on Privatisation did that.<\/p>\n
He recalled that he told his former boss that if the former government
\ncould conquer what he termed \u201ctwo mafias\u2019\u2019, Nigeria would move forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember I told my boss then that we had two mafias which if we solved,
\nNigeria would be the better for it. They are the mafias of the NEPA and
\nthe NNPC.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately the mafias are still there,\u2019\u2019 he said. (NAN)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Abuja – Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar on Monday said former President Olusegun Obasanjo had the right to endorse whoever he wanted for the 2015 presidential elections. Atiku said this in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n