Atiku Abubakar. |
Being
an Address Delivered by His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, Vice President of
Nigeria 1999-2007 and Presidential flag bearer of the People's Democratic Party
-PDP on Wednesday, 30th January 2019
I
thank the Lagos Island Club for giving me this platform to speak to such a
distinguished audience and on such a germane issue. I specifically want to
thank you for giving me the liberty to suggest a topic for today's discourse. I
had no hesitation seizing this great opportunity to speak to you on my vision
for this great country.
However
before I delve into this subject I need to say a few words on a fact that
many of you already know: our democracy is in peril.
After
unsuccessfully abusing the instruments of state to remove the leadership of the
legislature, President Muhammadu Buhari has turned his sights on the
judiciary.
The action of unilaterally suspending the Chief Justice of Nigeria by President Buhari is unconstitutional. The Constitution provides laid down rules for the suspension or removal of the CJN and this has not been followed. This is a grave attack on our constitution and the people of our country. As someone who has vigorously defended our constitution over a number of decades you can be rest assured that I will to do all in my power to ensure the matter is resolved in accordance with our constitution. For a key part of my vision for Nigeria is respect for the rule of law, because without it you can have no society.
The action of unilaterally suspending the Chief Justice of Nigeria by President Buhari is unconstitutional. The Constitution provides laid down rules for the suspension or removal of the CJN and this has not been followed. This is a grave attack on our constitution and the people of our country. As someone who has vigorously defended our constitution over a number of decades you can be rest assured that I will to do all in my power to ensure the matter is resolved in accordance with our constitution. For a key part of my vision for Nigeria is respect for the rule of law, because without it you can have no society.
My
preference for this topic is informed by one major consideration. It has always
been my view that those who aspire to govern Nigeria must begin to unveil their
policy priorities and their strategies for dealing with a plethora of local and
national issues from the mundane to the most complex. Indeed, it is time
for citizens to demand as a matter of right, from people aspiring to lead them,
a plan on what they want to accomplish and how. Political slogans should not
take the place of development plans and propaganda is a poor substitute for
proper socio-economic and political agenda.
As
a matter of fact, it has now been universally established that the ability to
articulate a possible future status, whether for a private organization or a
nation state, has been a vital component of successful leadership. We are all
awed by the strategic prowess of Steve Jobs of Apple, Bill Gates of Microsoft
or the Maverick Elon Reeve Musk of Tesla Inc.
Mr.
Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Dr. Mahathir of Malaysia and Xi Jinping of the
Peoples Republic of China, are just a few of illustrious 'CEOs' of nations
because they were visionary and had a positive notion of development.
The
lesson we all learn from the success stories of countries such as South
Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and People’s Republic of China is that
economic development does not happen by accident. Their experience
teaches that to be successful, economic reforms require a progressive
and forward-looking government that has the capacity to craft a coherent vision
and to develop coherent policies that will actualize its vision.
I
have faith in the capacity of Nigeria to make a quantum leap from third world
to first that Singapore, under Lee Kuan Yew, or Malaysia under Dr. Mahathir,
made. We have the human and material resources required to make the leap and in
fact, many of our nationals have helped other nations make that transition.
However, I also have
reasons to worry about the current status and future prospects of our great
country as neither our economy nor our society is working for our people.
Sadly,
in the last four years, Nigerians have witnessed a deterioration of all aspects
of basic human development as our country suffered avoidable social and
economic decline. The absence of coherent and comprehensive economic policy has
robbed the economy of its capacity to attract investment, to support the growth
of small businesses and absorb a fast-growing labour force. Africa’s largest
economy, with GDP of US$450 billion, remains paradoxically, ‘one of the poorest
and most unequal countries’ in the world. According to the UN last year Nigeria
overtook India, a country with 6 times our population, as the world capital for
people living in extreme poverty.
Under
the present Administration our people are not working.
Unemployment
has unfortunately been our only boom industry with over 13 million people
joining the ranks of people without a job, which now totals 21 million. If
people do not have a job they struggle to feed their families which is why 0ver
100 million of our people cannot afford one decent meal a day.
What
is also of cause for concern is that the majority of the unemployed are young
men and women, who lack not only the means to survive but any hope for the
future.
On
the political front, our unity as a nation has been fatally
bruised. Social cohesion is being eroded, democratic consolidation being
undermined, and national unity and security threatened by ethno-religious
tensions, agitations, restiveness and disputes over titles and entitlements.
Over
the years, Nigeria has promoted, tolerated and indeed celebrated a
defective political structure. Our states and local governments are too weak to
meet their constitutional responsibilities. Consequently, the Federal
Government has succeeded in emasculating them and taking away those
responsibilities and, along with these, the resources which belong to them.
The
structure of our country is not working.
If
we are to develop into a United, Secure and Prosperous nation we must be bold
enough to stitch all the structural faults lines that have arrested our
development as a nation. We must adopt a new economic management
model and a new political structure that will cure all the federating units of
their addiction to oil revenues. We must re-structure the polity and the
economy.
So having outlined the
challenges we face, you may quite rightly ask me: what is my vision to get
Nigeria working again?
My
Vision for Nigeria has been encapsulated in the #TheAtikuPlan which I launched
on the 19th of November 2018. As I demonstrated in the #TheAtikuPlan, Nigeria
does not need a complex vision. All we need, and will assiduously work to
achieve, is a United, Secure and Prosperous nation that will work for all
Nigerians irrespective of their gender, age, religious beliefs, ethnic
identity, local government, state or geo-political zone.
Nigerian
citizens want a Better Tomorrow.
We
envision a New Nigeria that will have, as a minimum, seven basic features.
1. An indivisible,
indissoluble, ethnically diverse but strong country that protects its citizens
and secures their socio-economic benefits.
2. A modern,
dynamic and competitive economy that is capable of taking its rightful place
among the top 20 economies of the world. Nigeria has the potential to double
its GDP by 2025.
3. A
strong economy that is capable of providing in the next 5 years, a
minimum 3 million job opportunities annually, reducing poverty rates to below
20% and significantly closing the income inequality gaps.
4. A Nigeria that
guarantees citizens' access to economic opportunities and makes the basic needs
of life, including health, education, electricity, water and housing, readily
available and affordable for everyone.
5. Anew political
structure that guarantees freedoms and ensures accountability at all levels of
government. Tomorrow's polity shall reinforce the country’s concept of true
Federalism by conceding unfettered autonomy to the subordinating units.
6. A Nigeria that
promotes the politics of inclusiveness and minimizes citizens’ frustration and
alienation and completely eliminates the compulsion to take up arms against the
society or fellow countrymen.
7. A country that
recognizes the central place of the rule of law and ensures the supremacy of
law over all persons and authorities. The Nigerian constitution will be the
anchor on which the independence of the judiciary, personal liberty and
democratic and other fundamental rights rest.
So that is all very well and
good, I hear you say, but what will I do to actualize my Vision?
Ladies
and Gentlemen, as you are aware, I have been in politics for a number of
decades and have also been in the private sector running my own businesses that
employ tens of thousands of Nigerians. Both experiences have afforded me
the ability to think about the policies my team and I will enact
that will have the benefit of practical application to create an environment
conducive to economic growth and job creation.
Given
your time, here are just 10 examples of the sort of and pragmatic policies we
plan to enact immediately should I be so fortunate so to be chosen by the
Nigerian people to lead them:
1. We
will restore investor confidence on the Nigerian economy.
We
all know that over the last four years, the actions or inactions of the Federal
Government, have resulted in a significant drop in investor confidence on the
Nigerian economy. As a consequence, there has been significant decline in
capital importation since the regime came into power in 2015.
Today,
Ghana – a country with just 14% of our population - attracts more FDI than
Nigeria. In order to reverse the trend, our economic policies will be more
coherent, consistent and therefore, more predictable by the business community.
Nothing could be more threatening to investment flows than an environment that
is full of policy flip-flops.
2. We
will support the private sector by undertaking reforms to unleash its growth
potential and to play a key role in the economy.
#TheAtikuPlan
recognizes the private sector as the engine of growth of our
economy. A strong, productive and pro-growth private sector is
needed to create wealth, generate employment opportunities and help fight
poverty. We pledge to improve government consultations with the
private sector in policy design and policy implementation. We will work with
the Organized Private Sector to identify ways to reduce the cost of borrowing,
tackle incidences of multiple taxation and improve availability of foreign
exchange for legitimate production input purchases.
3. We
will liberalise the economic space and privatise all ailing enterprises. In
particular, the #TheAtikuPlan will undertake a de-regulation of the downstream
sector of the economy, review the PIB and privatise all four State refineries
that operate at 10% of their installed capacities.. We shall channel the
proceeds from the privatisation into a special fund for the development of
education and health.
4. We
will assist the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to grow bigger and to be
more productive. As we all know,
small businesses offer the greatest opportunities for achieving inclusive
pro-poor growth, through increased self-employment. Our focus shall
be on improving their access to affordable, long term funds, provision of
critical infrastructure as well as adequate training for their workforce to
improve productive capacity.
5. We
will prioritize Human Capital Development. Our philosophy is that
people are the fundamental reason for economic growth. Accordingly, we will
increase investments in the human development sub-sectors especially education
and health by committing 25% of the budget to education and 15% to health
under a collaborative process and within the 3G partnership;
6. We will create jobs by growing the economy and promoting
innovative flagship job creation programmes such as: The National
Open Apprenticeship Programme through which we shall enhance the capacity of
Master-Crafts men and women to train 1,000,000 apprentices every
year. Our National Innovation Fund and SME Venture Capital Fund
initiatives will provide stable and sustainable long-term support to aspiring
entrepreneurs.
7. We
will create an Economic Stimulus Fund with an initial
investment capacity of approximately US$25 billion to support private sector
investments in infrastructure. Power sector reform will be a critical
policy priority. Our vision is to
accelerate investment
to double our infrastructure stock to approximately 50% of GDP by 2025 and 70% by 2030. Re-building
infrastructure and reducing infrastructure deficit will enhance the carrying
capacity of the economy and unleash growth and wealth creation.
8. We
will improve liquidity by undertaking fiscal restructuring and improving
the management of our fiscal resources by:
a. Improving
spending efficiency by reducing the share of recurrent expenditure and
increasing the share of capital expenditure in budget. Recurrent expenditure
over the medium term should not exceed 45% of budget.
b. Raising
additional revenue by blocking leakages from exchange rate adjustment. The
official rate on which the 2019 budget is based US$/N305 with a parallel market
rate of approximately US$/365. FGN will appropriate the premium in excess of
N60/US$
c. Reviewing
subsidy payments on PMS. The Federal Government has set aside billions of Naira
for subsidy payment in the 2019 budget. This will instead go into
the funding of education and health.
9. We will build strong and efficient service delivery
institutions for more effective co-ordination of government policies and for
effective support to the development of a dynamic and internationally
competitive private sector. We will re-position the public sector to become
more disciplined and performance-oriented.
10. We shall, through
constitutional means, achieve a new political structure that guarantees
freedoms and ensure government accountability at all levels. Our political
reform shall reinforce the country’s concept of true Federalism by conceding
unfettered autonomy to the subordinating units (States and Local Governments);
So,
in conclusion:
Since
the return of the country to democratic governance in 1999, I cannot think of a
more important election than the one we face in just over two weeks, given our
daunting development challenges. The opportunity to change the course of
history and rebuild the country begins on February 16th when
Nigerians will exercise their sacred duty to elect their President and other
political leaders. Nigerians must reject the status quo and
bring in a leader who has a history of economic reform and political transformation.
Nigeria
needs a leader who shares its hopes and aspirations, who understands the
complexities of the development process and who has the capacity to articulate
an acceptable notion of development.
It
requires strong commitment, bold initiatives, and a discernible shift from the
mistakes of the past, to lift Nigeria from the abyss, and make its people
happier, healthier, and wealthier.
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