The Spokesman of the Atiku Presidential Campaign
Organization just few minutes ago had a Facebook live video to announce the
official commencement of the Atiku/Obi Presidential Campaign.
In his words he said, ‘’Dear Citizens of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Ours is a land of many
hills, networks of crisscrossing rivers, lush green vegetation, and
the most spectacular sunset in the world. Yet it is you the Nigerian
people who are our great nation’s most beautiful treasure. So great is the
value of every Nigerian, that on you alone can the power to determine your
leaders, the custodians of the Nigerian will, be fully entrusted’’.
The opportunity has come once again for
you to determine those individuals who best embody that popular
will, to manage your affairs for the term period of Four years. Needless
to say, you have been inundated with the disruptive media
advertisements and dissonant promotions of conversations, around what
ought to be the issues in this campaign.
Kindly accept my sincere apologies that your
normal lives and the daily activities of our industrious people may have
to endure some more barraging of narratives for a while
longer; from political parties and candidates, my humble
self, and His Excellency; Atiku Abubakar, inclusive. But
I want to say to you, that we have no real alternative.
The fathers and the founders
of participative democracy took a leap of faith by insisting that those of
voting age within any space have a right and a duty to have a
say in who governs them, and how their affairs will be managed. That truly
is the foundation of a government of the people, for the
people, and by the people; which is the hallmark
of our democracy and a grave responsibility that I must
charge you to take very seriously.
As the campaigns commence today;
I, on behalf of Atiku Abubakar; the former Vice President
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Waziri of Adamawa and the
Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party of
Nigeria, entreat you to come along on a journey wherein I
will be speaking about the issues that concern us as a nation.
With automation being
predicted to replace an incredible Eight Hundred
Million jobs globally by 2030, the issues we need
to deliberate upon during these elections should be on how to
reinstate for a start, the Eleven million workers who lost their jobs
only Four years after we celebrated our emergence as Africa’s largest economy.
While nobody can restore the lives of over Twenty
Thousand Nigerian civilians lost to boko-haram alone, or the
scores of communities that have been sacked by criminal insurgents in the
farmer/herdsmen crises; if we dwell our campaign on issues
like reworking the security architectures of the nation, then there is genuine
hope for the over Two Million internally displaced citizens of Nigeria,
and the Nine Million innocent civilians in urgent need of focused intervention.
When you hear me and every member of
the Atiku Presidential campaign insisting on an issue-based
campaign, it is because we are insisting on opening up opportunities in
the Nigerian economy; we are insisting on creating greater value for our
people, and we are insisting on working hand in hand to
unite the country and bring it back from the brink of a shamelessly
ill-contrived disintegration.
This issue-based campaign that will usher in
the transformed Nigeria we all earnestly yearn for by 2019 is about
getting Atiku Abubakar, all other leaders you appoint
to all the elective positions, and every Nigerian wherever you may be; to
get together, roll up our sleeves, and work out how we can put
safe spaces over the heads of all Nigerians.
I sometimes ask myself
why Atiku Abubakar bothers, and then
I recall his humble beginnings in Jada, and where he
has reached today. He enjoyed scholarships, both from the
native authority and from the Federal Government. He also had the
opportunity of serving for Twenty years in the security
of a job in which He rose to the level of the Deputy
Director of the Nigerian Customs.
Tapping from the opportunities available
in private sector and business in Nigeria, He was privileged to have
become one of the respected entrepreneurs who have created
more opportunities in almost every industry. From education to
agriculture; manufacturing to media; logistics to consultancy; and what
have you, Atiku Abubakar has made giant strides and left a
positive impact, and He owes it all to
a principled Nigeria; emerging at the time, on
solid democratic foundations.
Also; having had the opportunity to be the
heartbeat of the Presidency as Vice President, I often debate
with myself on if it would be okay for His
Excellency to retire to the querencia of an idyllic
family life with his children, from where he could
leisurely pursue philanthropy; or if he has the energy
within him, the passion and the plan, to transform this country and give
our people the opportunity to bound into the Fourth industrial
revolution?
This is a revolution which by the way
is very inexorable, operosely demanding, and defiantly takes no
prisoners… so many of the great nations we admire today will
inevitably be left behind in the coming revolution, and the
reason why I know he ‘bothers’ to champion the Nigerian
cause, is because the inconvenience of electioneering is not a
valid enough excuse for him to fetter the transformation
that will poise our great nation to maximize the chances of seizing the
glorious future for a greater Nigeria.
Atiku Abubakar bothers because he recognizes it
as his responsibility to let every Nigerian know that we have
a brilliant chance to build a brighter
future for ourselves, if given the basic
opportunities of a functional Nigeria. He bothers because “Every
generation must out of relative obscurity, discover its
mission, fulfill it, or betray it”.
As such, I have to reiterate that this
campaign must be about the issues. Do not hesitate to ask the questions
you wish to have answers to, but let them be the questions that
allows us to show you the road-map to this our noble vision. We
must; as a matter of urgency, detoxify the political arena; and with
your help, His Excellency plans never to stray from the
appropriate narratives and only accommodate the pertinent
issues.
I know Atiku Abubakar has been
thinking about this for a longer period; and perhaps it will
take his rivals a bit more time to see the global advantage in
reducing the narrative tensions and divisive politics which
Africa has gotten its self locked
into. As citizens, Atiku Abubakar bids you
to do what is your duty. Your duty is to be peaceful, your duty is to be
law abiding, but for the purposes of selection, your duty is to get
yourself ready to exercise that sacred franchise that participatory
democracy offers you by going out en masse to vote.
As our volunteers, staff,
supporters, and the entire Atiku Presidential campaign
train moves through the nooks and crannies of the country, I plead with
you to welcome them with open arms; they are your friends
and neighbours, your colleagues and your kinsmen. Listen
to them; provide them with the questions that they may be able to answer,
and accept my assurance that we will pass on
to Atiku Abubakar, the questions beyond our scope if any. As a
fan of the media, you are all witness to His Excellency’s presence
in the public spaces of all popular media; this is because the
voice of every Nigerian matters to him.
Welcome to the campaign seasons of
the 2019 general elections. A platform the Presidential
candidate of the People’s Democratic Party intends to utilize
in showing the entire world that African democracy has indeed come
of age. Join us, and together let’s get Nigeria working again.
SIGNED:
SEGUN SHOWUNMI
DIRECTOR, MEDIA AND PUBLICITY
SPOKESMAN: ATIKU PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ORGANIZATION
