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Tag: atiku

  • Atiku urges FG to dialogue with Adamawa, Borno, Yobe

    Atiku urges FG to dialogue with Adamawa, Borno, Yobe

    ...Blames insecurity on unemployment, poverty

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Friday spoke on the insecurity in the country, saying that there is need for the Federal Government to engage aggrieved parties in dialogue while taking decisive measures to protect innocent people.

    He, however, said the current emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa State does not foreclose the immediate need for dialogue in that zone and other places.

    His words: “That is why the government must do all that is necessary in a democratic society to protect lives and property. Thus, there is the need to engage aggrieved groups in dialogue while taking decisive security measures to protect innocent people. I hope that the current emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States does not obviate the urgent need for such dialogue in that zone and elsewhere.”

    Atiku spoke as the Special Guest of Honour at the 4th District Conference 2013 of the Rotary International in Abuja. The theme of the conference was “Creating a Culture of Peace through Service.”

    He attributed the insecurity in the country to unemployment, poverty and growing rate of corrupt practices.

    The ex-Vice President said: “Whatever the immediate causes of these conflicts and insecurity, there is no doubt that the high level of unemployment, poverty and accompanying alienation, especially of our young people, have provided veritable recruiting grounds for these insurgencies and other forms of criminality.

    “And these are taking place within the context of a collapsed educational system, poor investment climate, less than mediocre governance and increasing corruption.”

    Atiku noted that hardly a day goes by without fresh slaughter of fellow citizens in one part of the country or the other due to robbery, kidnapping and violent insurgencies in the north.

    He said that there are struggles between Muslims and Christians, herdsmen and farmers even as security operatives on rescue mission have been accused of atrocities against civilians.

    He noted that wave of insecurity has badly hurt the economies of Borno, Yobe , Plateau, Adamawa and Kaduna States .

     

  • Atiku decries poverty, unemployment

    Atiku decries poverty, unemployment

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has decried the abject poverty and mass unemployment in the land.

    He described both as the greatest challenges facing the nation’s democracy.

    Appealing to political leaders at all levels to tackle the problems, the former Vice President also advised Nigerians to always hold their leaders accountable to halt their seeming indifference to good governance.

    In a message yesterday by his media office in Abuja, Atiku urged elected leaders to stop giving excuses for their failure and focus on how to transform the lives of the people in line with their mandates.

    He noted that the worsening state of poverty, unemployment and uncertainty are factors that feed the cauldron of pervasive insecurity in the country.

    Atiku said he felt embarrassed each time he was confronted by the pathetic level of poverty, unemployment, hunger and disease in the land, despite the huge resources available to the leaders to improve the living standards of the people.

    He said: “The success of democracy cannot be measured in terms of how well the leaders live but by how well the voters are doing economically, socially and materially.

    “There is a limit to which leaders can convince the people to remain patient, especially at a time the lifestyles of leaders create an island of opulence surrounded by a sea of alarming poverty.”

     

  • Atiku decries militarisation of democracy

    Atiku decries militarisation of democracy

    Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has said despite the end of military rule over a decade ago, the culture of political intolerance and impunity still pervades the country.

    Atiku spoke on Monday in Switzerland as a guest speaker of the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations.

    He regretted that in Nigeria and other parts of Africa’s opposition members are treated as enemies of the state.

    In his paper, entitled: Deepening Democracy in Nigeria: Implications for Africa, the former Vice-President noted that as a result of lip service to democratic principles, “disregard for rules and regulations and the utter impunity with which they are committed” has led to what he called “the militarisation of democracy”.

    According to him, many retired military chiefs, who came into power as politicians entered the democratic arena without being able to shed their military mindsets, thereby exacerbating the culture of intolerance and entrenching impunity, which characterises today’s political reality in Nigeria.

    The former Vice-President admitted that despite the democratic challenges, the freedom of speech, association, the right to organise politically and the liberty to criticise the government were restored with the return of democratic rule.

    Atiku also acknowledged that with the new democratic order in Nigeria, the nation’s courts have become more relatively independent, besides the freedom of the press that came with it.

    But he regretted that democratic gains are being threatened by the persistent perception of political opposition as an enemy that has to be crushed “rather than patriots who happen to disagree simply because they hold different political views”.

    Atiku noted that members of the ruling parties, who oppose lack of internal democracy or abuse of power by those occupying executive political offices are either repressed and harassed, thereby undermining the institutions of democracy.

    He argued that Nigeria’s economic growth of 6.5 per cent is far below what is required to “quickly lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty once and for all”.

    The former Vice-President admitted that poor leadership is to blame for the problems he highlighted.

    On democracy, Atiku urged Western democratic nations to play more active and deeper role in helping Nigeria with credible elections.

    He urged Switzerland and other Western nations to go beyond economic investments and exert political pressure on local leaders to “open up the political space”.

     

  • El-Rufai hits back at Atiku on Pentascope contract

    El-Rufai hits back at Atiku on Pentascope contract

    •Insists ex-VP approved failed  management  contract

    •Ex-FCT minister’s allegation dismissed

     

    A former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai yesterday insisted that ex-Vice-President Atiku Abubakar approved the management contract with Pentascope for the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited ( NITEL).

    He said Pentascope was not foisted on NITEL as being alleged in some quarters.

    Since Pentascope management of NITEL went awry, there had been shifting of blames by some government officials in the administration of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    Some had blamed el-Rufai for the failure of NITEL. Others criticised the former Vice-President who was then the Chairman of the National Privatization Council (NCP).

    But el-Rufai’s book, “Accidental Public Servant,” stirred the hornet’s nest on NITEL which forced Atiku to voice out.

    However, in his reaction to the controversy through a statement by his Media Advisor, Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye, the former FCT Minister said the leadership of BPE also neglected its responsibilities in supervising Pentascope management contract.

    The statement said: “On Pentascope, we see the same pattern of muddying the waters with falsehood. As chairman of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), Atiku gave his approval in writing on February 21, 2003 for the management contract with Pentascope to be signed. The memo on which Atiku minuted his approval, is dated 20th February 2003, and was initiated by the director of BPE that was covering the DG’s duties at the time.

    “By the virtue of the high office he then held, Atiku knows that Pentascope was not foisted on NITEL but emerged from a properly advertised and competitive selection process.

    “After the failure of the first attempt to sell NITEL, it had been decided that there was need for a management contractor to keep the momentum of preparing the company to operate like a private entity and to preserve its assets. Pentascope resumed in NITEL on April 28 2003, shortly before El Rufai left the BPE to become a minister.

    “The Pentascope contract terms included obligations by the BPE to monitor the contract, and for the NITEL Board to set up an Executive Committee to supervise day to day operations in NITEL.

    “Between the new BPE leadership that neglected its responsibilities, the NCP which Atiku chaired and which failed to supervise the BPE and the bureaucrats and politicians around the Ministry of Communications, the management contract was frustrated and terminated in 2005.

    “When a former vice-president asserts that NITEL was making N100 billion in profit annually, the mind must boggle that someone so unconstrained by fidelity to facts had once been saddled with significant responsibilities. NITEL never made such profits.

    “NITEL had never paid a single dividend to the FGN until the BPE forced it to pay N3billion in 2001! While the politicians and bureaucrats were fighting to reclaim ministerial control of NITEL (and the inflated equipment contracts that came with it), the company was fast losing market share to the new kids on the block, the GSM companies that understood how to create and sustain value.

    “It is to be hoped that Atiku will respond to the other matters concerning him in the book, but this time he must ensure that facts trump the braggadocio.”

    But the former Vice President has again dismissed those allegation.

    He said they are not new. In a statement by his Media Office, Atiku said: “The interesting thing is that those spreading these allegations couldn’t come forward with any iota of proof against me. I was also accused of selling African Petroleum to myself, using a front. However, when the facts eventually emerged in respect of this particular allegation, my traducers were disarmed and were forced to retreat. Indeed, I was the most investigated public office holder under the former administration and, if this allegation was valid, it could have been conveniently used to bring me down and tarnish my name. Thank God I survived this smear campaign, just like others before it.

    “The Senate conducted a public hearing on privatisation under my leadership as the chairman of the National Council on Privatisation. That was the best opportunity for those accusing me of selling public assets to myself to come forward to prove the allegation. Surprisingly, they never did because they relied mainly on hearsay. A cabinet member in Obasanjo’s government, who was promoting this idle rumour, was eventually left looking small because he didn’t have the facts to substantiate his allegations against me.

    “On Pentascope, people should direct the questions to El-Rufai himself. The Pentascope scandal was one of the issues investigated by the National Assembly and it accused El-Rufai of ignoring wise counsel by imposing the company on NITEL.”

     

     

     

     

  • 2015: Jonathan can’t be PDP’s sole candidate, says Atiku

    2015: Jonathan can’t be PDP’s sole candidate, says Atiku

    •Ex-VP vows to resist party’s  likely constitution change

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has vowed to resist any attempt to foist President Goodluck Jonathan on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the sole candidate in 2015.

    Atiku, who has declared his intention to seek the PDP ticket ahead of the 2015 polls, spoke in Kano yesterday. He was reacting to alleged surreptitious moves to amend the PDP Constitution to pave the way for Jonathan’s sole candidacy.

    Elder statesman and Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark, in a letter to Niger State Governor Babangida,Aliyu, which he read to reporters in Abuja last week, said there was nothing wrong with a Jonathan sole candidacy.

    He said the practice in democratic presidential system of government is that “an incumbent President remains the sole candidate of a political party at the party’s convention, if he or she is willing to contest for a second term in office”.

    The former minister said it was the practice in the United States from where Nigeria copied its presidential system for the incumbent President to automatically get his party’s ticket.

    He wondered whether the late President Umaru Yar’Adua would not have sought a second term in office if he were to be alive.

    Clark said: “To lend credence to the fact that a sitting President is entitled to a second term, the ambitious and unpatriotic governors and some northern conservative politicians confirmed this constitutional provision by saying that it was the second term of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua that the North wanted to complete in 2011.

    “In other words, the late President was entitled to eight years in office but Jonathan is entitled to only a single term, contrary to the 1999 Constitution.”

    Atiku said: “My position is that as far as PDP Constitution is concerned, any attempt to change the party’s rule to favour the President as a sole candidate in the event of his willingness to re-contest is unconstitutional. The contest should be open to all with the desire to pursue an ambition on the platform of the PDP.

    “I don’t think any such amendment of the party constitution will be successful; we are looking forward to a successful transition in 2015.”

    Atiku also picked hole in the statement credited to a Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that there would be no election in the North in 2015 due to the security challenges being experienced in the region.

    To him, such are uncalled for.

    “For me, that is a wrong statement to come from any such office because as far as I am concerned, the entire North is peaceful, except for two states. How can you now say there may not be election in the North with 19 states, just because there is problem in two states.

    “We don’t know the man who made the statement is working for; he certainly is not reflecting INEC’s position. It is an inaccurate statement, that we will not go for election in the North.”

    On the allegation that INEC and the PDP are working to thwart the All Progressive Congress (APC) registration, Atiku said the allegation was unsubstantiated. He said he conducted a private investigation, which confirmed that the PDP is not behind the registration crisis.

     

  • South south group wants Atiku

    South south group wants Atiku

    Ahead of the 2015 presidential election, a pressure group, the South-South Progressive Youth Movement, has thrown its support behind former vice president, Atiku Abubakar to run under the platforms of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

    In a statement on Friday by its President, Mr Austine Ibok, the group expressed confidence in Atiku to address the teeming challenges confronting the youths in Nigeria.

    They noted that the high rate of youth unemployment, which was yet to be properly addressed, had resulted to the emergence of the Boko Haram sect in the north and militancy in the Niger Delta region, among other teething problems in the other geopolitical zones.

    It also canvassed that such ticket should consider the inclusion of River State Governor Rotimi Amaechi as running mate.

  • Atiku seeks stiffer anti-graft laws

    Atiku seeks stiffer anti-graft laws

    … To deter ‘white-collar criminals’

    Former Vice -President Atiku Abubakar has called on the Federal Government and National Assembly to put in place stiffer anti-corruption laws for the country.

    He said this will go a long in curbing graft in the country.

    Reacting to the public outrage that greeted the two-year sentence passed on a pension crime convict, the former Vice President explained that the issue brought to light the major defects of the anti-corruption laws.

    In a statement released by his media office, Atiku said that “ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo submitted a stiffer draft law which, however, was watered down by the then National Assembly.”

    He said rather than trading blames, Nigerians should also look at the weaknesses in these laws and call for their urgent review.

    According to Atiku, the purpose of punishment is deterrence and the ultimate desire to produce remorse in the hearts and minds of offenders.

    This, however, could not be achieved, he said, when the punishment is made so light as to make criminality attractive.

    The former vice president regretted that a situation where the majority believes the law is designed against the poor or petty offenders is not too good for the credibility of the anti-corruption war.

    He particularly warned that the recent outrage over the light conviction of the pension offender could send the wrong signal to the international community about the seriousness or sincerity of Nigeria to fight corruption.

    Atiku maintained that the existing penal provisions of the anti-corruption laws make it impossible to impose punishments that fit the gravity of the offences committed by “white-collar criminals.”

    The former number two citizen, who played an active role in the formulation of the anti-corruption laws and creation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, said more than a decade after, it was high time the provisions of the law is reviewed to strengthen the commission and the anti-graft war.

     

  • Atiku calls for free secondary education

    Atiku calls for free secondary education

    • Says cash alone can’t solve Boko Haram insurgency

     

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called for a radical shift in the administration of education in the country, saying free and compulsory secondary education should be provided for all.

    Speaking yesterday in Abuja at the 2012 Shehu Musa Yar’Adua memorial lecture and presentation of the book,: Shehu Musa Yar’Adua neither North nor South nor East nor West: One Nigeria, he proposed for decentralisation of running education in the country.

    He asked the federal government to concede education as a responsibility for state/regional and local governments with the federal government, at best, setting standards and providing financial support.

    The former Vice President who is the founder of American University of Nigeria, Yola (AUN), also advocated for the enactment of a law that mandates anyone under the age of 18 to be in school and to hold parents accountable for non-compliance.

    He said, these will help address the high number of children of school age who are out of school.

    Nigeria, he revealed has the highest number of children of school age who are not in school, as according to him, about 10.5million children of school age are not in school. This figure he said is besides the 75million unemployed youth in the country.

    The number he said is the worst in the world.

    The former vice president also revealed that the country has too many uneducated adults whose lives would likely have been better with education.

    The figures, he said vary across the country with his home zone of the North East faring the worst. He blamed the situation on the general level of corruption in the country, which he said is entrenched in the society.

    Delivering his lecture titled Rebuilding public education as a bridge to Nigeria’s future, he said the remedy is not in throwing in cash just as what happened in the area of security where security budget has been increased yet the problem of Boko Haram persists.

    Rather, he said, what was needed was a change of policy and strategy. He also noted that professionals and not politicians be allowed to implement policies in the educational system.

    Besides, he said the country is in a dire need for the expansion of school spaces across the country. He insisted that a revolutionary law to ensure that most citizens complete secondary school education is needed.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Zoning: PDP must admit 2011 mistake – Atiku

    Zoning: PDP must admit 2011 mistake – Atiku

    Former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is of the view that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cannot move forward until it admits the wrong it committed in 2011, when it gave its presidential ticket to President Goodluck Jonathan in alleged contradiction to its zoning policy.

    Reacting to the declaration by the party leadership, last week, that it will stick to its zoning policy for the 2015 elections, Atiku told The Nation that “If the leadership is serious about making amends for the injustice of the past, it has to first admit that a wrong had been done and then take appropriate steps to do the right thing.”

    Atiku, one of the PDP presidential aspirants that lost out in 2011, following the abandonment of the party’s zoning policy said: “It is a fact that the issue of zoning is still enshrined in the constitution as amended. However, recall that in the run up to the 2011 election, the principle of zoning as enshrined in the party was implemented in breach. If the current leadership wants to right the wrongs of the past, it has to match its intent with action. It cannot be that zoning is right for some people and it is abandoned when it comes to others.”

    National Secretary of PDP, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, had told newsmen that the party will stick to its zoning policy in picking its presidential candidate for the 2015 election.

    He explained that the party’s leadership’s decision was informed by the realisation that, “What has endeared the PDP to Nigerians is the zoning arrangement, which has given minority groups the hope of realising their political aspirations in the country.”

    Asked if that declaration would put paid to the long drawn controversy, Atiku retorted, “You cannot eat your cake and have it. If the leadership is serious about making amends for the injustice of the past, it has to first admit that a wrong had been done and then take appropriate steps to do the right thing.

    There cannot be atonement without confession. The admission of error is the first step to rectification.”

    Other Nigerians, including other PDP stalwarts expressed a similar sentiment. One of them is Mike Okorie, a Lagos- based lawyer and former PDP House of Representatives aspirant in Abia State.

    Responding to the PDP statement Okorie said “For more reasons than one, the statement is not conclusive of the matter. Besides, the Party is noted for policy shifts, somersault and double standard. Let us not forget in a hurry the events leading up to 2011 Presidential elections and even thereafter, when zoning was observed in the breach, if not jettisoned. Now the trillion naira question is whose turn is it for at least to produce the next Speaker, House of Representatives, not to talk of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

     

  • Atiku seeks law to prune President’s powers

    Atiku seeks law to prune President’s powers

    •Tinubu: INEC must be truly independent

     

    Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar stirred a fresh debate on the powers of the President yesterday.

    The National Assembly should prune the President’s powers as part of the review of the constitution, he said, because  with such excessive powers, the President can easily undermine any institution of the state.

    Former Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be made truly independent to guarantee free and fair polls.

    He advocated a unicameral legislature at the federal level, saying the Senate should be scrapped.

    It was all at the Annual Conference and Award Ceremony of the Leadership Newspaper Group in Abuja.

    Former Defence Minister Gen. Theophilus Danjuma was presented with the award of “Leadership man of the Year”.

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi was decorated as “Governor of the Year”, among other honours at the occasion.

    Atiku  said the President is constitutionally the most powerful president in the world. He recalled that he (Atiku) was a victim of the power when his former boss, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, exercised it. He insisted that “it must be changed”.

    The theme of the conference was: “Is the opposition a serious alternative in Nigeria?”

    Atiku recalled that former Vice President Alex Ekwueme canvassed the creation of geo-political zones. He should have supported Ekwueme had he known that the Nigerian federal structure would be as it is today, with  concentration of excessive power at the centre, Atiku said.

    The Nigerian judiciary, said Atiku, “is bloated and pro-establishment. He would like to see a judiciary that is the hope of the common man.

    The ex-Vice President also advised the National Assembly to pass laws for the adoption of a two-party political  system since the ruling party abhors strong opposition.

    He added that states that are ready for state police should be allowed to establish them.

    Atiku also lamented that there was unnecessary debates and pandemonium over states having their anthems and flags, which is commonplace in the United States.

    He urged Nigeria to desist from relying on sharing oil revenue, but to encourage revenue generation.

    The former Vice President urged the country to sustain the achievements of the forefathers that didn’t have oil revenue by adopting “a system of distribution rather than sharing.”

    On sharing of oil revenue, Atiku said: “I  don’t know of any country that developed from sharing.”

    He said he followed a debate whether the Niger Delta can survive, like Singapore, without oil, but he is of the opinion that all that is necessary is human capital and good governance for the oil-rich region to be as wealthy as Singapore.

    He insisted that he was not a product of oil boom as the scholarship did not come from oil revenue.

    National Leader of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Asiwaju Tinubu said to cut cost of governance, Nigeria should adopt a uni-camera legislature by scrapping the Senate.

    Tinubu said unless INEC is truly independent, it will always do the bidding of Mr. president, who appoints the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs).

    He said: “We gave INEC power and authority to act on our behalf, to be independent from government; why won’t we allow the buck to stop on the desk of the INEC chair? Why will INEC not be able to appoint those in the branches? why will they be appointed by the President who said they will rule for 60 years? How will we have a reliable system? We have struggled for power as opposition and we are ready to wrest power from them.”

    But Gen. Danjuma vehemently disagreed with those who complained of a concentration of power at the centre. He said the challenges in the country are not posed solely by the Federal Government but mostly by governors, “who pocket the State Assembly and dissolve local government councils.”

    According to Gen. Danjuma, governors of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have retained the right of nominating ministerial candidates.

    Pointing to Atiku, Gen. Danjuma said: “You cannot become the President of this country, unless the governors want you. So, the governors are too powerful and until we find solution to it, we are in trouble.”

    While condemning opposition parties for not posing a formidable challenge to the ruling party, Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima. He  was represented by the Secretary to the State Government,  Ambassador Ahmed Baba Jida.

    Former Minister of Power Paul Onongo warned the country of the impending danger of a break-up which he predicted would come in two years, unless the necessary steps are taken to rescue the country.

    “I can even see two years before the war signals. Talk to the bigmen who are enjoying life that they should start sleeping with one eye open.”

    Guest Speaker Prof. Pat Utomi argued that there are no political parties in Nigeria but “vehicles for getting own shares”.

    He said: “I try not to argue that there is no opposition parties in Nigeria, but all we have is for sharing of the national cake.”

    House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal said with good leadership, there is hope for the country.

    At the ceremony were Fayemi, Alhaji Maitama Sule, former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, ACN chairman Chief Bisi Akande, Gen. Jeremiah Useni, Minister of State for Power Darius Ishaku, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Senator Lawal Shaibu, Hon. Farouk Lawan, Ndudi Elumelu and others.