A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has replied Nigerian
comedian, Francis Agoda, popularly known as I Go Dye, who took to Instagram to
attack the likely Presidental candidate for
the 2019 elections.
I Go Dye wrote, a few days days ago:
“ Don’t use sentimental empathy on the youth to express your
political ambitions.
Sir, you are one of those that have immensely benefited from
Nigeria since your birth in 1946.
Having worked for 20 years with the Nigeria Customs where
you retired at the age of 43 in 1989 as Deputy Director, your bucket list sure
looks good because you were obviously employed at youth 23.
In 1999 you became governor of Adamawa and ultimately the
Vice President, all of these you achieved at 53. What did you do during your
time in that exalted position? When will the youth like in your time get a
chance? I am motivated to speak, based on your statement: A party that does not
take the youth into account is a dying party. The future belongs to the young.
Please which of the future?
Remarkably, between 1999 and 2007 that you were the Vice
president of Nigeria, it is recorded that tertiary institutions witnessed
several strikes that wasted seventeen months, three weeks and three days.
Within this period, what did you do?
If social support were given to youth then, their children
will be between 18 and 20 years during the 2019 elections, obviously, they
would have willingly voted for you or anyone that you endorse in 2019. This is
the essence of making sacrifices for the future generation.
You cannot be credited to have been philanthropic to the
youth.
The recent revocation of the NPA contract with Intel, your
company, is the major issue.
As a company either, the people in the region you operated cannot accredit Intel to have provided credible support for the youth or built skills acquisition centers to curb unproductivity as part of it’s cooperate social responsibility, which has resulted to many youth embarking on the Sub-Sahara deserts route trek to Europe, which has claimed many lives.
Your Excellency, sir Atiku Abubakar, please don’t use
sentimental empathy on the youth to express your political ambitions, because
by 2019 the youth are preparing to substantiate the real economical, political
and progressive change.
I kindly recommend that you should advocate for a process
that will afford us the opportunity of a youthful leadership in the 2019 election. Thanks
Amb Francis.”
Atiku’s reply:
“Dear I Go Dye,
I read your post on Instagram.
It was hard to miss it because it was on every major news
website. I would like to say that you were mostly right. The questions you
raised in your post are similar to the ones I have been asked by other young
people on social media, so I am replying this not just to you as a person, but
to all young Nigerians who have asked similar questions.
Firstly, you are right. The Nigerian youth have often been
taken for granted, and almost every leader in our history has taken young
people for granted. But it’s important to point how this started — for people
like me who saw Independence; our leadership was mostly driven by young people.
Then came the coups, and the civil war, and then more coups. Nigeria ended up
with a long period of military dictatorship for many decades, in which time;
those young leaders aged, but still remained leaders. Fela, Gani, Enahoro, and
Beko were young leaders, yet remained leaders until their demise. That was
because of the stagnation brought on by decades of political instability.
By the time we got to 1999, the young people of the day had
not been prepared for leadership, because there was no leadership or
apprenticeship process under dictatorships. This is one of the reasons the age
of leaders has continued to rise. That was because of the leadership stagnation
brought on by decades of political instability. Imagine a school that did not
graduate any students for 5 years, by the time the top class finally graduates,
you will have a backlog of undergraduates.
Our young people are not to blame; we need to remedy this
national failure. Last week, there were local government elections in Akwa
Ibom, with over 60% of the seats won by young people, less than 35 years old.
That’s how progress can be made. Young people need to participate from the
grassroots, all the way across board.
Appointments are good, but getting
elected is even better. I also understand the issues around funding elections
which keep women and young people out, and I will address this in an article I
am publishing soon.
I do understand your frustration on the issue, however, I
tell people my age that to understand young Nigerians, we need to understand
the difference between Nigeria and Naija. Naija embodies the hopes and dreams
of young Nigerians, the country they love and long to go home to when they are
abroad. Naija is the country that brings them pride in music, film, comedy,
fashion, and technology. It is the country of Wizkid, Asa, Davido, Tuface, the
Olympic bobsled team, Iwobi and Don Jazzy Again.
Nigeria on the other hand, is the country of their parents,
the country where leaders are constantly failing them, of Boko Haram, of
herdsmen violence, of recessions and joblessness. Our young people need us to
make our country live up to the aspirations of Naija by fixing the problems
associated with Nigeria.
I think it’s important to address the accusation about my
tenure as Vice President, that I did nothing for young people. Firstly, as VP,
I can only be judged on the responsibilities I was given. A VP obviously is not
the driver of government. For example, you can’t blame Prof Osinbajo for all
that is going on with the current government. He can only do what he’s allowed
to do.
But let me speak about what you can judge me by, my assigned
responsibilities. As VP, I assembled what is arguably the best Economic Team
ever in Nigeria. It was made up of young, world class professionals, who came
home to work. Some of those professionals are now political leaders, governors
and world leaders in their own right.
If you ask what our first task was, coming into government
in 1999, it was to bring stability to the economy after decades of military
rule. For example, between 1999 and 2003, oil prices then were hovering between
$16 and $28 yet we managed to pay up salary arrears from decades back, clear up
our national debts and built up foreign reserves. Our GDP grew at the fastest
rate we’ve seen since the return to democracy.
You mentioned that I never brought young people into
leadership, but my record speaks differently. I have a proven record of
bringing young, unknown professionals into service. Many of the professionals
and ministers I brought in were in their 30s and early 40s. Some of those young
leaders have become governors in their states. I went to the World Bank and met
a bright lady, convinced her to come back home, and she became a star in our
government. To show you we had effective leadership, the same lady could not
replicate her exploits under a different government.
I was also in charge of privatisation and I have witnesses
that I never interfered with the process. I never bought anything belonging to
the government. I was quite wealthy before coming into government, with
declared assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars in 1999 (which was put in
a trust when I became VP); so it was understandable that many of the wealthy
Nigerian business people who participated in the privatisation programme were
my friends. Did I use my influence to get them better deals? No. As the then DG
of BPE testified under oath, I never used my position to interfere with his
work.
My legacy as Vice President, I would say is the banking
consolidation process, for which I gave political backing for. Many big people
were putting a lot of political pressure to not change the status quo, but we
knew that if that consolidation was not done, Nigeria could not grow. Because
of that banking consolidation, Nigerian banks don’t fail anymore the way they
used to.
I oversaw the telecoms revolution, which is why young people
like you, I Go Dye, now have a flourishing career. Under our tenure, we
witnessed a large repatriation of Nigerians back to Nigeria, driven by the hope
of the recovering economy. It is sad that many of those young people are
heading back abroad now — this is to show you that leadership matters.
I know many of these have been forgotten because it was a
long time ago, and successive administrations did not follow up on the progress
we made. But that is also not to say we were blameless. I was largely frozen
out in the second term of our tenure, and I regret that we had that
disagreement with my boss. Some say I was disloyal, but I looked at the events
in Zimbabwe recently, and it gives me confidence that I did the right thing
fighting the attempts to elongate the presidential tenure beyond eight years.
If I did not win that fight, do you think we would be having a discussion on
young people getting into leadership today?
Intels. I want to address this because you mentioned it. It
was the Shagari government that started the Onne Port and later abandoned it.
In summary, my business partner and I saw an opportunity to build Nigeria’s oil
industry using world class infrastructure, but driven by Nigerians. We went out
and took loans to build the facilities, but as we went on, more opportunities
opened up, which allowed us access to even more capital. We ended up borrowing
hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly from Europe, to build the port,
singlehandedly charting the course of Nigeria’s oil industry.
Honestly, I did not ever think we would be that successful,
which was why I kept my day job, when we started it. It was just what you would
call, a side hustle, but it grew so big, and I had to quit my government job to
focus on it. Today, every oil major uses the facilities we built. The
government only became clients after the oil companies. Our company has
expanded to several countries in Africa. Even the FG has seen that that company
is the most competent logistics company in Africa, which is why it gives Intels
the most complex operations to manage.
But Intels as a corporate citizen is loved in the locations
it operates. That’s because we invest in scholarships, hire young people from
the community and train them to become world class technicians. As CSR, we have
gone into partnership with the NFF to train young Nigerian footballers, and
provide support for the local league. We are loved by the youth in our local
communities.
In my home state of Adamawa for example, I’ve created over
50,000 direct jobs and 250,000 indirect ones. We are the largest private
employers of labour in the state only second to the state government. It’s not
a lot, but it does help reduce unemployment. Who do you think are holding those
jobs? Yes, young people.
I Go Dye, I’m not a messiah. I do not promise Eldorado or $1
= N1. But I always ask to look at the economic progress we made under my
leadership and what I am doing in private business and judge me by those.
People say I became rich in government. It’s a lie. I had hundreds of millions
of dollars in assets declared in 1999. My businesses (my shares of which were
held in a Blind Trust while I was in government) continued to grow since then.
I was able to personally bankroll the PDP back then, so surely I was not poor.
But I understand it is politics. So it’s normal to be called names. But how
come in all these years, none of my opponents has found any evidence to indict
me?
The people who are afraid of me changing the status quo they
enjoy will always try to frighten young people about me.
Some people believe youth empowerment is giving handouts to
young people instead of building a strong economy. They are wrong. They want to
give handouts so they can control young people. But how long can we continue
like that? Our country is borrowing to pay salaries, yet we are still holding
on to outdated models just so we can control young people for elections.
The success of young Nigerian entrepreneurs in IT &
technology, retail, music, and arts shows that given the chance, they can run anything.
My job is to be a bridge, which supports our young people achieve these ideals.
I will never say only I can do this. I can’t do it alone. I need your support,
I Go Dye, so help our economy grow, to ensure that within 10 years, our young
people can take over completely.
In summary, I Go Dye, I am not a person who says what he
cannot do or show proof. I am giving you an invitation to sit down and ask me
any questions you may have. I would also like to take you around, show you some
of the businesses I have built, and let you speak to the young people who run
those places. It is good to try to convince you that I can do better by our
young people, but it is even better to show you. Send me a direct message
on Twitter, and we will take it from there.”
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