I express my deepest condolences to the Irukwu family, the government and people of Abia State, and the Igbo nation worldwide on the passing away of Professor Joe Irukwu, a former President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide. Professor Irukwu was both a legal and insurance luminary who, despite his national and global accomplishments on professional grounds, took to community service. He served as the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo when I was privileged to serve as the Vice President of Nigeria, and our paths crossed many times in pursuits of the national agenda for development and peace. He was a team player…
Author: Atiku Abubakar
I have been notified of a fake press release attributed to me and purportedly giving legitimacy to the widely rigged presidential election of February 25. The so-called press release did not emanate from me or my office, and it should be treated with repudiation, untrue, and deliberately contrived by those who illegally appropriated the mandate of the Nigerian people. For the avoidance of any doubt, I wish to state categorically that my lawyers still have my unflinching mandate to challenge the outcome of the February 25 presidential election. I join other lovers of democracy in Nigeria and friends of our…
It is with a sense of praise to the Almighty Allah that I welcome Muslim faithful in Nigeria and across the globe to this year’s glorious month of Ramadan. As Muslims, we understand that the basic tenets of this holy month is about sacrifice and devotion in worship to God. For us as Nigerians, this year’s Ramadan has come at a time when our dear country is at the crossroads. For us as individuals and as a people, we are at a point of despondency and confusion. But the month of Ramadan has come to us as a blessing from…
Early this morning, my attention was drawn to a news clip in which several very senior and influential members of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), addressed the press and, amongst other things, declared that they are withdrawing, forthwith, from the Presidential Campaign Council set up by our party to judiciously plan and prosecute the general elections set to hold in February and March 2023, on the one hand; and reiterated their earlier calls for the resignation or removal from office of the national chairman of our party, Senator Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, on the other hand. The people…
I thank the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry for giving me this platform to speak to such a distinguished audience and on such a germane issue. As you are aware I have been in the private sector running my businesses and feel, therefore, very comfortable amid captains of industry, entrepreneurs and businessmen and women. So, this is like home coming to me. It is Business2Buisness. A meeting of like minds. Why is this gathering important not just for us but for our great country as well? First, in times of uncertainty such as we are experiencing today, it is…
Climate change is real. The flooding that has followed torrential downpours in towns and villages in Nigeria – like other places around the globe, confirms this. The damage that has been occasioned on account of the floods are troubling. Public social facilities like schools and hospitals have been impacted. It may be safe to say, however, that no one carries the burden of these floods like our farmers. Media reports abound of swathes of farmlands and food crops being washed away. The consequence of these losses by our farmers will be felt by all of us. Any hope of a…
The passing of Queen Elizabeth II comes to everyone around the globe with a rude shock. Her passing is an end of a golden era. Her reign was epochal, not just in the United Kingdom but the entire Commonwealth. The world has known only one Queen and the passing of Queen Elizabeth II will be the end of an impactful reign and, for the rest of our humanity, it shall be the beginning of history. My thoughts and prayers are with the people and government of the United Kingdom and, importantly, the royal family. May the soul of the Queen…
Last week the National Bureau of Statistics released the GDP figures for Q2 2022. The government has been unreasonably upbeat about the reported growth rate of 3.4%. The plain truth is that the economy is in deeper trouble than the APC-led government is willing to admit. The citizens’ level of misery hasn’t changed, and the reasons are obvious: first, the key sectors of the economy, notably agriculture, oil and gas (the country’s cash cow) and manufacturing (that contributes to jobs), are either growing slowly or declining. Second, unabated are rising commodity prices occasioned by high energy and transportation costs (and…
Like in every upwardly mobile society, the story of our great country, Nigeria, cannot be complete without the contribution of our amazing women. Either in contemporary times or in those periods when the bonds of our nationhood was being forged, Nigerian women have stood tall to be counted as worthy patriots. Once in a year, the world comes together to acknowledge the vital importance of women in the society. This day, the 8thof March is the day set aside for that purpose. Since the Almighty God in His infinite wisdom has created our humanity in a binary form, the essence…
On June 16, 2020, I sounded an alarm to the nation that our debts have reached unsustainable levels, and were consuming over 90% of our revenue in debt servicing. That warning was a patriotic one, devoid of partisanship, and was meant as wake up call to prevent the nation from going into insolvency. At that time, I said: ‘We are on a precipice and if revenue figures do not rise quickly, Nigeria risks a situation where revenue cannot even sustain its debt servicing obligations. Meaning that we may become insolvent and our creditors may foreclose on us, as has…
Being Chairman’s Remarks by Atiku Abubakar, GCON, Former Vice President Federal Republic of Nigeria, at the Public Presentation of the book, Remaking Nigeria: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices, held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, 19 August, 2021. Protocol: On May 31st, 2016, at this very venue, I chaired the public presentation of a book by Chido Onumah with the eye-catching title: We are all Biafrans. In the book, Chido used Biafra as a metaphor for the legitimate feelings of marginalization by diverse segments of Nigerians that cut across the country and the growing agitations by many thoughtful Nigerians for…
The major challenge facing Nigeria today is that we are drifting. We are not just drifting politically and economically. We are also drifting apart from each other. I have often said that the difference between us is not North and South, but between good and bad. Therefore, those who are good should come together to show those who are bad that we are in the overwhelming majority. I have repeatedly said that I am a Nigerian. Full stop. That is my identity. And now more than ever, we must ask ourselves this question: what does it mean to be a…
I have never felt so bad at being proven right, as I am by the report from Bloomberg Business on Saturday, March 27, 2021 that Nigeria is to emerge as the nation with the highest unemployment rate on Earth, at just over 33 per cent. We warned about this, but repeated warnings by myself and other patriots were scorned. And now this. How did Nigeria get here? We got here by abandoning the people-centred leadership and free trade and deregulatory policies of the Obasanjo years (which saw us maintain an almost single digit unemployment rate), and implementing discredit command and…
Nigeria needs to be restructured. Just look at Nigeria today. This truth is staring us in our collective faces. The current ethnic and religious clashes bedevilling Nigeria are symptoms of the disease. They themselves are not the illness. We must address the root causes of the various symptoms of insecurity Nigeria now faces. Nigeria needs peace, unity and prosperity. But all three of these virtues are dependent on Nigeria having social justice. Without justice, there cannot be cohesiveness in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation as Nigeria. Nigeria has foundational issues, which we have to resolve. Until we resolve those issues,…
As a nation, our police, armed forces and paramilitary bodies have shown great gallantry, patriotism, and dedication to duty. They are our first line of defense against enemies of our nation and saboteurs within our midst. I laud, value and acknowledge them, which is why I awarded scholarships and gave other support to the children of some of our fallen heroes. Having said that, I must add that the reality on the ground in Nigeria today is that our armed and paramilitary forces are overstretched. To deny this is to unpatriotically put their lives at risk. This we must not…
John Quincy Adams once said “there are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.” He may have very well been referring to Nigeria of the last three years. Barely two weeks ago, I warned during my Founder’s Day lecture at the American University of Nigeria, Yola, that Nigeria had taken almost as much foreign debt in the last three years, as she had taken in the thirty years before 2015 combined. Now that is frightening. And very true. Frightening, not just because of the amount, but because after such…
