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.
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.7 Africa’s largest economy, with GDP of US$450 billion, remains paradoxically, ‘one o
