Meets Dangote, Ovia, Other Private Sector Leaders
The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has promised to reverse the decline in critical sectors of the productive areas of the economy.
The former Vice President, who revealed this yesterday at an interactive session with leaders of corporate Nigeria, reaffirmed that his blueprint is most suited for the socio-economic and political recovery of the country.
The meeting, held in Lagos, was attended by prominent leaders of corporate Nigeria, including Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Jim Ovia, Oba Otudeko, Aig Imoukhuede, among others.
The interactive session, which took the form of panel discussion, was moderated by popular financial expert, Tilewa Adebajo, focusing on six thematic topics including security, fiscal and monetary matters, power, oil and gas, infrastructure and manufacturing.
Abubakar said there are facts about the current state of the economy that should dictate to Nigerians whether the country 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.”
He 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 why 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,” he said.
The chairman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council and Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Emmanuel Udom, 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’s from lost grounds and make the country bounce back.”
In a similar vein, the party’s presidential campaign spokesman, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, has assured that the party’s presidential candidate would in addition to other measures; create jobs to tackle the recurring insecurity and poverty in Nigeria.
He stressed that without jobs, it would be impossible to solve the security challenges, with its attendant effect on the country’s socio-economic conditions.
Aniagwu, speaking on television programme, yesterday, Aniagwu said until jobs are created in the country, insecurity would continue to fester, adding: “Earlier today in Lagos, Atiku and his running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, had a successful dialogue with corporate Nigeria.…
“The discussion centered mainly on the economic issues, like job creation and how to ensure that a number of comatose industries are brought back to life and to recover our country from where we are now. Atiku believes that not until we are able to bring back the jobs, the issue of insecurity will remain a challenge.”
