Atiku Abubakar, a businessman and presidential aspirant of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), alongside his running mate, Peter Obi, have cleared the air, debunking claims of corruption allegations on them, instead pledging to fight corruption with technology.
The 72-year-old businessman has also vowed to deploy advanced technological tools by automating the public service to reduce the incidences of corruption, as that is the only way that Africa’s most populous nation can reduce corruption.
“We will deploy technology in our public and private sectors to prevent any form of direct contact that can cause corruption,” Atiku said on Wednesday evening at The Candidate, NTA’s political platform where he and his vice presidential running mate, Peter Obi, were engaged in a question and answer session.
Nigeria’s incumbent, President Mohammadu Buhari came into power vowing to fight corruption to stand still, yet Africa’s largest economy maintained a score of 27 points despite moving four places up the ladder, according to data from Transparency International Index, an international non-governmental agency that tracks corruption cases across countries in the world.
Atiku, who is a Muslim, said fighting corruption was never an economic policy, but pledged to create jobs and strengthen government institutions as part of ways of tackling corruption.
The presidential hopeful who served as vice president under a two time former Nigerian president, Olusegun obasanjo, said he gave a whooping N300 million from the proceeds of privatisation for the take-off the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). “I personally brought the draft piece of legislation from Brazil that created what we now know as the EFCC,” he said.
Atiku, while speaking on corruption allegations against his wife, said, “What I can tell you is that my wife has never been charged or indicted of any corruption case.”
Nigerians will be matching to the poll come February 16 to vote its president and its representative into the National Assembly.
President Buhari, who has sought re-election to get the country to the Next Level by diversifying the economy after the country entered a recession due to a collapse in global oil prices.
Buhari’s major contender, Atiku, on the other hand said he would get the economy working again by reducing unemployment, attracting investment, putting Africa’s most populous nation on a $900 billion GDP by 2030.
To achieve this, he pledged to cut tax, as this would increase foreign investor’s appetite to invest in the country, and in turn tackle the issue of unemployment currently standing at 23.1 percent as of Q3 2018, according to the NBS data.
“I’m the most experienced out of every candidate, I am the candidate of the future and I try to bridge the current generation with the future generation,” he said, throwing shots at Buhari for crumbling the country’s GDP growth from 6% in 2014 to less than 1 percent in full year 2017.
Peter Obi, on the other hand in showing how efficient his experience is in running the affairs of Anambra State, said, “I invested $30 million state money in the International Brewery business and today it is worth over $100 million, no state has ever done that.”
Atiku further pledged that if elected, he would ensure that there was independence of the judiciary
Asked again how he would re-position the judiciary for public trust, he said there would be time limits for investigators to do their work, for prosecution to be done, and for the judiciary dispense justice.
“The cumulative experience of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a unifier that can bring Nigeria together and I will support him considering the age difference,” Obi said, when asked why running with Atiku.
MICHEAL ANI
