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As Ex-Vice President Emerges ADC Presidential Candidate
- Safiu Kehinde
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. has called for unity within African Democratic Congress (ADC) to defeat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 Presidential Election.
Atiku made the call during his acceptance speech following his emergence as the ADC’s Presidential candidate.
NPO Reported that the ex-Vice President was on Wednesday declared winner of the ADC primaries, defeating closest rival, Rotimi Amaechi, and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen.
Speaking after being declared as the party’s flagbearer at the collation centre in Abuja, Atiku maintained that no one was defeated at the primaries as he called for unity and togetherness in the party’s bid to defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“I must state at this juncture that this is not the time to celebrate. No one was defeated because we are one party and we all need to recognise the fierce urgency of the moment.
“Therefore, we have to unite, as we pledged before this process, to work to pull our country and our people out of the destructive grip of a corrupt, incompetent and polarising APC government.” He said.
While expressing gratitude to the ADC Primary Election Committee for the conduct of the election, Atiku urged the party to put primary election behind the commence work on the 2027 General Election.
“I thank the primary elections Committee for organising peaceful, free, fair and transparent primaries.
“I thank the various leadership organs of our party, the various stakeholders, and volunteers for their hard work and dedication and all our party members and supporters for their efforts, patience and conduct during the process.
“With the primaries behind us, the real hard work is about to begin.
“We have to prepare to campaign hard to win the next general elections in order to begin the difficult process of rescuing our country and its long-suffering people from this government.” He said.
Atiku unveiled his campaign agenda for the country as he vowed to prioritise security, education, economy, healthcare and the challenge of power- sharing among the constituent units of our country.
“Every region of this country is gripped by insecurity, the worst kind in our history. Our people are being slaughtered in large numbers and the government has failed to take decisive and effective action to stop it and bring the perpetrators to justice.
“The most disturbing is that members of our security forces, including military generals, are being slaughtered wantonly in a manner that can only be embarrassing to our military, which fought to keep the country together and is highly respected in various parts of the world where they distinguished themselves in international assignments.
“All we have been getting from the government is silence and, on occasion, expression of condolence and empty promises to deal with the murderers.
“An ADC government under my leadership will take decisive action to address insecurity and protect lives and property in the country.
“We shall strengthen the armed forces, the police and other security agencies with massive new recruitment, provision of modern and adequate equipment, training, improved welfare and effective leadership.
“We shall also ensure accountability and proper coordination and intelligence sharing among all our security agencies.
“It is obvious to us in the ADC that we can only secure our country long-term if we educate our young people and create an economy in which they and their families can thrive and help to change Nigeria and the world for the better.” He said.
On education, Atiku vowed to implement free and compulsory education at the primary and secondary levels.
“Under the watch of this APC government over 20 million of our school-age children are not in school. This cannot be tolerated in the modern world where education is the surest path to descent employment, wealth creation, national development and enlightened citizenry.
‘We will, therefore, implement free and compulsory education at the primary and secondary levels and invest in leadership, entrepreneurial, technological and innovation skills amongst our teeming youth.
“We shall embark on a holistic revival of our educational system by ensuring that staffing, buildings and all infrastructures are in place to make Nigerian youths competitive again.
“And the welfare of teachers will reflect their critical importance in nurturing the young.” The ex-Vice President said.
Atiku expressed commitment to building an economy that works for all Nigerians as he accused the APC-led administration of impoverishing the people.
“This APC government has failed woefully on the economy. The poverty gripping our people is at a level that we have never seen in our history.
“The government brandishes statistics claiming that the economy is growing. But what has really been growing is the ill-gotten wealth of a few in and around the corridors of power while our people have extreme difficulty finding food to eat, paying for transport, medical treatment or their children’s school fees.
“We commit to building an economy that benefits all Nigerians. Building an economy that works for Nigerians can only gather momentum when we address our utterly embarrassing and economy-destroying energy crisis.
“The provision of electricity is a minimum requirement for industrialization, be it in the factory or in the farm, for big business and for small enterprises.
“We shall remove the various bottlenecks limiting investments in various sectors of our economy in order to attract local and foreign investments that would create jobs and create meaningful growth in our economy. And we shall provide incentives where necessary to promote investment and job creation.” He said.
The ADC Presidential candidate thereafter extended olive branch to other Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen as he called for their support.
“I, therefore, appeal to all those who feel aggrieved to come back to our party and close ranks with the rest of us. I appeal to all those who contested for various positions in our primaries to close ranks with us.
“In particular, I invite Chief Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and Alhaji Mohammed Hayatu-Deen to join me in this fight to save our democracy and our country.
“As I said previously, there are no winners and no losers. Our people look up to us for leadership. I am ready to lead.
“I shall work with you all to continue to build our party. I will campaign with you and, if Nigerians give us the mandate, govern with you to build a country that works for all.” He said.
