Nigeria @58th: Our youth gives us hope of a better tomorrow- Atiku

Former Vice President and Presidential aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has said that despite the myriad of challenges facing Nigeria at the moment, the youth of the country are a beckon of hope better things to come in the future.

Atiku expressed this optimism in his message to the nation on the occasion of the 58th Independence Anniversary of the country, made available to BusinessDay on Sunday by his Adviser on Media, Paul Ibe.

Atiku also expressed sadness about the state of the nation today even as he blamed the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government for allegedly bringing untold hardship on the people of Nigeria in the last three years.

He said, “You may ask why I am not glad. It should be obvious. A mere three years ago, we were the third fastest growing economy in the world. As I write this to you today, our fortunes have reversed to the point where we are now the world headquarters for extreme poverty, according to the World Poverty Clock and the World Economic Forum.”

He added that the promise of change, which many Nigerians, including himself, celebrated three years ago, has been seen for what it is, a hollow and empty promise devoid of meaning and the incapacity of the promisor to deliver on his promises.

“Yet, I am hopeful, as you and your family should be. The indomitable Nigerian spirit gives me hope. Our youth, like the five girls from Regina Pacis Secondary School Onitsha, Anambra state, who won the 2018 World Technovation Challenge in the Silicon Valley, give us hope.

“Bright Nigerian youth, like Israel Zakari Galadima from Borno State, who emerged ‎the best overall student in the 2018 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s University Matriculation Examinations (UME) after scoring 364, make us hopeful for the future,” Atiku said.

He lamented that at the beginning of the year Nigerians were shocked by news from the National Bureau of Statistics, that 7.9 million Nigerians had lost their jobs in just 21 months adding that Nigerians were further shaken by the fact that Nigeria had overtaken India as the nation with the largest out of school children population in the world, even though India has seven times our population.

“We were further warned by one of the world’s largest banks, HSBC, that our economy faces challenges if we do not make certain personnel changes in the near future. These warnings were also corroborated by the world’s foremost economic magazine, The Economist.

“Indeed, this was not the Nigeria our founding fathers visualised. What they visualised was a Nigeria founded on unity, faith, peace and love. We owe it as a duty to keep faith with their vision.

“That is why today, I make bold to pledge that I will devote the rest of my life to building bridges across Nigeria in order that the founding fathers’ vision of unity, faith, peace and love, is materialised in my lifetime, so help me God. Those of us, who God has blessed with ability, also have a corresponding responsibility to use that ability for the common good of the collective,” he said.

Apparently referring to President Buhari’s recent insinuation that Nigerian youth are lazy, Atiku countered that that Nigerian youth are not lazy; stressing that the youth are desirous of working, but there is a dearth of jobs. “This is why I have committed personal resources to open multiple businesses in 2018 to get as many unemployed Nigerians working again. This is why I set up animal feed plants to provide an alternative to animal grazing so that lives may be saved just as jobs are created. Our people should not have to give up their lands to save their lives,” he said.

The Wazirin Adamawa called on people who have entrepreneurial ability, to use such abilities to help assuage the chronic unemployment in the land, adding that Nigerians owe it as a duty to God and the founding fathers of the nation.

He prayed God to bless Nigeria and wished the People a fruitful independence anniversary.

Innocent Odoh, Abuja