Atiku to Buhari: 90m Nigerians living in extreme poverty

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of having nothing to show for steering the ship of the nation for about four years. He said 90 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty under his watch.

Atiku took on the President over his remarks at the kick-off of his presidential campaign in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, on December 28, where he declared that he had fulfilled his promises to Nigerians.

The former vice president,  reminded the President that a day before he made the declaration, it was revealed that the number of Nigerians living in extreme poverty had increased from 87 million to 90 million in just four months.

In a statement yesterday by his media adviser, Mr. Paul Ibe, the PDP presidential candidate said going by rising poverty rate, the whole country will be in extreme poverty if Nigerians make the mistake of re-electing Buhari.

The statement said: “Except the President made a vow to impoverish Nigerians, it is hard to see how he could have fulfilled his promises with such pervasive poverty and hunger in the land.

“This is even as the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics revealed a week to the President’s unfortunate statement that unemployment had doubled from the 14 per cent  he met it in May 2015 to 23.1 per cent in December of 2018.

“But the most blatant insult from the President was his assertion at Uyo that ‘we have defeated Boko Haram’. It was most insensitive of the President to have said such on a day that foreign and domestic media reported the entrapment of our gallant troops by Boko Haram/ISWAP in Baga, with as many as 700 hundred reported missing.

“Even more indicting is the statement from the US based  International Strategic Studies Association, which revealed that the Boko Haram insurgency was lingering due to the massive corruption around  President Muhammadu Buhari.

“How would those soldiers feel, how would their families feel, how would their colleagues in the barracks feel when they are facing a life and death situation and their commander-in-chief is impervious to reality?”

“And, for the umpteenth time, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari to come clean on the faceless people behind Keystone Bank and Etisalat. Nigerians deserve to know how people who used to beg for N2000 transport money, as revealed by Buhari’s right hand man, Buba Galadima, are now suddenly wealthy enough to acquire multi billion dollar investments.

“Finally, we cannot wait for the presidential debate where Atiku Abubakar will talk about his plans to reduce the unemployment rate from 23.1 per cent under Buhari to single digits, because Atiku means jobs and Buhari means extreme poverty.