The current Nigerian administration has allowed our relationship with our long-standing friends and partners to deteriorate and this has had unfortunate consequences for our economy
Presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has said his decision to travel to the United States was taken in the interest of Nigerians, especially youths who make up a large part of the population. In a statement titled “Why My Mission to the US Matters” personally signed by the former Vice President, he said the importance of his ongoing visit to the U.S, mainly to meet U.S administration officials and business leaders could not be overemphasised.
“I travelled to the USA because I had a mission and my mission is to create the right economic atmosphere for American investments to return to Nigeria at a rate and quantum that we had before the current Nigerian administration’s policies almost halted the flow of Foreign Direct Investments to Nigeria.
I am in America because Atiku means jobs. “My reason for running for the office of President of Nigeria and even for going into public service in the first place, is because I believe that Nigeria has what it takes to be the beacon of hope for the Black Race and a leading nation of reckoning in the international community,” he wrote. While quoting Chinua Achebe’s “the trouble with Nigeria is the failure of leadership,” Atiku said hope of a change regarding this “has not materialised over the course of the last four years.” He added: “The current Nigerian administration has allowed our relationship with our long-standing friends and partners to deteriorate and this has had unfortunate consequences for our economy.
“Foreign relations that had been meticulously and delicately built for decades were allowed to deteriorate because the incumbent administration mistook their personal interests as the interest of Nigeria and allowed short term goals to dominate their foreign policies.” According to the Waziri Adamawa, the policy of nonalignment, borrowed from the Lincoln policy of malice toward none and charity for all which Nigeria had nurtured from independence, had suffered major setbacks in the last four years. “As a leader in business, I am cognisant of the fact that both Western and Oriental nations will be making the transition from fossil fuels to electric powered vehicles and other green energies over the course of the next two decades. This means that Nigeria’s oil has a limited shelf life.
“To be forewarned is to be forearmed and we must, as a nation, begin to make the transition from an oil economy to a modern economy based on manufacturing and value-added agricultural chain. “The message I took to the United States business community is not a new message. In my opinion editorial in the British media (Beyond Brexit – Nigeria wants a new trade deal with Britain), I opined that Brexit is an opportunity for Nigeria and the United Kingdom to have a Big Ambitious Free Trade Agreement. It is only common sense. “In 2014, the African continent as a whole earned $2.4 billion from coffee grown in Africa and shipped mainly to Europe. That sounds impressive.
However, one nation alone, Germany, made $3.8 billion from re-exporting Africa’s coffee in 2014. “As a businessman, I see this and I cannot allow it to continue. It is unconscionable, but situations like these will not stop unless Nigeria and Africa have leadership that thinks business instead of aid and capital instead of loans. “Nigeria has perhaps the highest populations of youths as a segment of the total population, in the world. Already, we have the unfortunate distinction of being the world headquarters for extreme poverty. We cannot afford business as usual. My single-minded focus is to change this dubious record by transforming Nigeria from a consumer nation to a prosumer nation (a nation that consumes what it produces). – New Telegraph.
