Presidential candidate of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has penned a long article on
why he decided to visit the United States of America.
The former vice-president’s
ability to visit the US was shrouded in controversy, over the belief that he
was facing corruption charges.
However, Atiku touched down in
Washington on Thursday and spoke at the Chamber of Commerce on Friday.
Atiku stated that he travelled to
the US, because he has a mission to “create the right economic atmosphere for
American investments to return to Nigeria”.
Full text below:
It has become pertinent for me to
speak about my ongoing visit to the United States of America, where I have met
and I am still meeting with the U.S. administration officials and business
leaders.
I travelled to the United States
of America because I have a mission, which is to create the right economic
atmosphere for American investments to return to Nigeria at a rate and quantum
that we had before the current Nigerian administration’s policies almost halted
the flow of foreign direct investments to Nigeria.
I am in America because Atiku
means jobs.
My reason for running for the
office of president of Nigeria and even for going into public service in the
first place, is because I believe that Nigeria has what it takes to be the beacon
of hope for the black race and a leading nation of reckoning in the
international community.
This has not materialised over
the course of the last four years because, as Chinua Achebe prophetically said
in his 1983 book, “the trouble with Nigeria is the failure of leadership.”
The current Nigerian
administration has allowed our relationship with our long-standing friends and
partners to deteriorate and this has had unfortunate consequences for our
economy.
Foreign relations that had been
meticulously and delicately built for decades were allowed to deteriorate
because members of the incumbent administration mistook their personal
interests as the interests of Nigeria and allowed short term goals to dominate
their foreign policies.
New friendships should not be
made at the cost of old friendships. It is not an either-or situation. Right
from Independence, Nigeria has nurtured a policy of non-alignment. We borrowed
from the Lincoln policy of malice toward none and charity for all. Sadly, that
policy has suffered major setbacks in the last four years.
As a leader in business, I am
cognisant of the fact that both Western and Oriental nations will be making the
transition from fossil fuels to electric powered vehicles and other green
energies over the course of the next two decades. This means that Nigeria’s oil
has a limited shelf life.
To be forewarned is to be
forearmed and we must, as a nation, begin to make the transition from an oil
economy to a modern one based on manufacturing and value-added agricultural
chain.
…my vision is for trade to go
both ways. Nigeria has a lot to offer America via her creative industry
(Nollywood is the world’s third largest movie industry) and rich mining sectors
(Nigeria’s Kaduna State is rich in gold ore). I am also eager to find a market
in the U.S. for some of the half a million shoes manufactured in Nigeria’s
cities of Kano and Aba everyday.
The message I took to the United
States business community is not a new message. In my opinion editorial in the
British media (“Beyond Brexit – Nigeria wants a new trade deal with Britain”),
I submitted that Brexit is an opportunity for Nigeria and the United Kingdom to
have a Big Ambitious Free Trade Agreement.
It is only common sense.
In 2014, the African continent as
a whole earned $2.4 billion from coffee grown in Africa and shipped mainly to
Europe. That sounds impressive. However, one nation alone, Germany, made $3.8
billion from re-exporting Africa’s coffee in 2014.
As a businessman, I see this and
I cannot allow it to continue. It is unconscionable, but situations like these
will not stop unless Nigeria and Africa have leadership that thinks business,
instead of aid, and capital instead of loans.
Nigeria has, perhaps, the highest
populations of youth as a segment of the total population, in the world.
Already, we have the unfortunate distinction of being the world headquarters of
extreme poverty. We cannot afford business as usual. My single-minded focus is
to change this dubious record by transforming Nigeria from a consumer nation to
a prosumer nation (a nation that consumes what it produces).
For this to happen, we need U.S.
firms who have divested from Nigeria, to return. We need Procter and Gamble to
reopen its $300 million Nigerian plant, which it shut down last year. We need
General Electric to reverse its $2.7 billion pull out of Nigeria.
And my vision is for trade to go
both ways. Nigeria has a lot to offer America via her creative industry
(Nollywood is the world’s third largest movie industry) and rich mining sectors
(Nigeria’s Kaduna State is rich in gold ore). I am also eager to find a market
in the U.S. for some of the half a million shoes manufactured in Nigeria’s
cities of Kano and Aba everyday.
Someone somewhere said Nigeria’s
youth are lazy. I am one of the single largest employers of Nigeria’s youth and
I know that assertion is false. My travels in Europe and America is to sell the
Nigeria that I know to the world that does not yet know her. A Nigeria with not
just a hardworking youthful population, but a nation with some of the smartest
working people on earth. A nation that is open for business and a Nigeria that
is much more than oil.
And I am certain that if I am
successful in selling this Nigeria to the world, the world will come to Nigeria
for business. That is why I am in America. Because I believe in JOBS – Jobs,
Opportunity, Being United and Security and it is time Nigeria and all Nigerians
finally have the opportunity to realise their true potentials.
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He's full of shit.. what did he do when he was v.p?
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