By Samson Johnson, Abuja
A group of young Nigerian politicians under the 2019 Campaign Platform called Atiku for President (AFP) has called on former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, to declare his presidential ambition on or before January 1, 2018.
The group said in a press statement issued on Tuesday that it has a self-imposed mandate to mobilize at least 4 million youths with voters’ cards to vote for Atiku in the 2019 election.
“Our core mandate is to mobilize 2 million Nigerian youths with Permanent Voters’ Cards who also have the capacity to mobilize at least one friend or relative with PVCs to vote for Atiku Abubakar in the 2019 Presidential election.
We are a group of like-minded young, vibrant, cerebral and articulate grassroots politicians. We have established formidable structures in all the 8810 wards, 774 local government areas and 36 states of the federation as well as Abuja for the purpose of advancing the Atiku presidential cause. Our thousands of members and volunteers scattered all over the country are waiting for green light from Atiku to hit the ground running,” the statement read in part.
According to the group, the present administration has failed to fulfill its promises owing to its failure to make fuel available during the Yuletide even as Nigerians have to pay exorbitant price for it. The group added that rather than create jobs as promised, the government has continued to cause loss of jobs and has left the Nigerian youths disillusioned and frustrated.
The group therefore argued that the only man who has the experience, clout and capacity to create jobs and make the economy work is Atiku, who according them has a history of job and wealth creation in his private capacity.
The statement jointly signed by the group’s Convener, Mr Abdulrahman Abdulraheem and its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Emmanuel Uchele Oguche, further read: “It is our well-considered opinion that the present political leadership in Nigeria is mediocre and other observant Nigerians will have no choice but agree with us that Nigeria cannot endure another four years of this embarrassing failure. The people in government vowed to fight corruption, but rather they are romancing corruption as evidenced in the myriads of embarrassing scandals they are enmeshed in. They have also failed to fix the economy, rather their indecision and sometimes curious decisions have caused loss of jobs. Based on their reckless utterances, acts of omission and commission, Nigeria is more divided along ethnic/religious lines today than at any other time in the country’s history.
We have now found a man who has a history of creating wealth and employing millions of people even in his private capacity; a detribalized Nigerian who understands the diverse and complex nature of the nation, a sound mind who also has eagle eyes for talents and who will not waste time to appoint credible world class professionals who will work with him to reposition the economy. Based on his recent utterances and conduct, he has shown that Nigerian youths will be the bedrock of his administration come 2019.
We therefore call on Atiku to desist from further wasting the time of the teeming Nigerian youths . We are aware that Atiku recently left the disaster-prone ruling party to rejoin the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to prepare for another shot at the Presidency, though he is still consulting. He must realize that the battle to rescue Nigeria from the rudderless status quo is not about him or any of the people he is consulting. It’s about us, the youths and the future of this potentially-great nation.
We the youths of this nation have chosen Atiku as our next president and we are ready to move round every corner of the world with him like an unstoppable train to actualize this mandate. We hereby seize this historic moment to call on the Waziri Adamawa to declare for President on or before January 1 , 2018 so that this extraordinary journey to rescue our dear country from its gradual decent into the status of a failed state can begin in earnest. The best New Year gift he can give Nigerians who have been at the receiving end of the hideous irresponsibility of the APC-led administration, is to wake them up in the morning of January 1, 2018 and announce his intention to seek the highest office in the land in 2019.”
