This Is The Worst Election In 30 Years, Says Atiku

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has described the just-concluded presidential election as the worst held in the nation in the last 30 years.

He condemned the election while addressing party supporters on Wednesday in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

Atiku, who rejected the outcome of the poll, said even the military government conducted a better election than the one conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on February 23, 2019.



READ ALSO: INEC Presents Certificates Of Return To Buhari, Osinbajo

“As I have always said, this year is my three decades in Nigeria’s struggle for democracy; but this is the worst election in those 30 years,” he said.

“And I told that to General Abdulsalami (Abubakar) two nights ago, when he called me. I said not even the military has conducted such a worst election.”



The PDP candidate alleged that there were a lot of irregularities in the election which saw President Muhammadu Buhari extend his stay in the Aso Villa by another four years.

He highlighted the cases of violence recorded in some states, as well as the alleged inflation of votes in the strongholds of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Despite his loss in the election, Atiku insisted that he was confident of victory and vowed to challenge the President’s victory.

He also told his supporters not to lose hope and asked foreign investors to be patient with the nation, saying he was on the quest of reclaiming his mandate.

The PDP candidate said, “Let me start by thanking you all for choosing democracy as a certain system of government for our great nation. As you all know, democracy is a government of the people by the people only when the people’s choice prevail.”

“This is a long journey, but I am confident of victory. All hope is not lost; stay strong, by the grace of God we shall triumph,” he stated.

Read Atiku’s full speech below;

Dear citizens of Nigeria,

Let me start by thanking you for choosing democracy as the settled system of government for our great nation.

Democracy is a government of the people by the people, only when the people’s choice prevails. That did not happen on Saturday, February 23, 2019.

On Election Day, we saw the implementation of grand theft of the people’s will. I am not one for hyperbole so I will just let the facts speak for themselves.



In Akwa-Ibom for instance, the results showed a statistical impossibility of a 62% drop in voter numbers from the 2015 elections even where voter registration and PVC collection rates were much higher than in 2015.

This pattern was repeated in strongholds of the Peoples Democratic Party, including in Delta, Rivers, Abia and Benue states.

As this was occurring, we saw another statistical impossibility wherein voter turnout and numbers increased astronomically in Borno State by an almost miraculous 82% in the midst of increased insecurity.

This pattern was also repeated in other strongholds of the All Progressive Congress.

One begins to ask if insecurity is conducive to higher voter turnouts and security is antithetical to high voter turnout.

It is further curious that the Peoples Democratic Party’s margin of victory in states outside the Southeast and South-south were extremely slim across board. That again is a statistical impossibility.

The fact is that when you calmly look at the numbers declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission as results of the February 23, 2019 elections, they do not add up.

Let me say that I am not speaking as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party. I am speaking as a Nigerian when I say that the electoral fraud perpetrated by the Buhari administration this past Saturday cannot produce a government of the people for the simple reason that it does not reflect the will of the Nigerian people.

It is for this reason that I, Atiku Abubakar, reject the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission declaring Muhammadu Buhari as duly returned by the majority of lawful votes.

I am conferring with not just my party, but also with the Nigerian people, on next steps, which will be revealed to the public shortly.

For my fellow Nigerians who feel angry, disillusioned, and let down by the process, I appeal to you to remain calm and steadfast. Rome was not built in a day. We have the real figures, we have the facts that were spoken so loudly on Saturday, February 23, 2019.

This is a long journey, but I am confident of victory. All hope is not lost. Stay strong, by the grace of God we shall triumph. 

And to investors and friends of Nigeria now pulling out of Nigeria, I urge you to be patient and keep faith with the Nigerian people. Your quarrel is not with the Nigerian people. Your quarrel is with those who stole their mandate. Please do not punish the people by divesting from Nigeria.

Thank you all and may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Nigeria was more prosperous under PDP, says Atiku

AgegePulse Magazine

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Thursday compared the PDP governments with the present All Progressives Congress administration, saying Nigerians had the longest and consistent record of prosperity and peace under the PDP administration.

Atiku, who made the assertion at the Mapo hall, Ibadan at the South-West presidential rally of the PDP, also promised to begin the restructuring of the country within six months of assumption of office.

He also berated the APC government for allegedly plunging the country into huge debts, saying Nigerians must vote President Muhammadu Buhari out of office in 2019.

Atiku,  who was accompanied to the rally  by his running mate, Peter Obi; the party’s National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus; the  Director-General of his campaign, Otunba Gbenga Daniel; former governors of Ekiti and Osun, Ayo Fayose and Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola respectively, lamented the widespread hunger, poverty and insecurity in the land.

He assured Nigerians that he would assemble the best economic team to return prosperity to Nigeria.

The presidential candidate urged Nigerians not to believe the alleged lies of the APC and to use their permanent voter cards to send the ruling party away.

According to him, Nigerians must refrain from selling their votes to the APC for them to witness a rebirth of new Nigeria with food in abundance, quality life, security of lives and property and economic well-being for all.

Punch

Why Buhari uncompromising, power drunk - Atiku

Olusola Fabiyi and Oladimeji Ramon

A former Vice-President,  Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has expressed the fear that the 2019 presidential election may not be free with President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired military man, now leading the country.

He said unlike former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was in power during the 2015 general elections and was “much more level-headed” being a “peaceful, (and) very patriotic Nigerian,” the country was now dealing with “a retired general, (who is) very uncompromising, also power-drunk; (and) who will not be ready to leave power without a fight.”

An AFP report quoted Atiku, a presidential aspirant on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, as saying on Monday evening that these were “some of my fears for the current elections.”

“The characters that are involved this time, as far as the leadership of this country is concerned, are different from 2015,” he said.

Atiku also tasked Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) to explain to Nigerians the decision by the Federal Government to share $322m Abacha’s loot and also begged for a fresh $328m loan from China.

The new loan is said to be for Information and Communications Technology development.

Atiku was reacting to Osinbajo’s response to the former Vice President’s reaction to the need to restructure the country.

Atiku accused Osinbajo of not being coherent in his arguments, saying he was merely jumping from one topic to the other.

He said, “I must say that his dovetailing into the area of the economy does not explain certain facts such as the fact that the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics reported in December 2017 that Nigeria lost 7.9 million jobs in the 21 month period under review.

“If the Vice President cannot see that losing 7.9 million jobs in 21 months while creating 500,000 jobs is a deficit, then I do not know what to say to the honourable professor.

“Professor Osinbajo also harps on ‘prudence in public finance,’ but he fails to show the wisdom in sharing out $322m of Abacha funds to the poor only to take a loan of $328m from the Chinese the very next month. Many Nigerians, myself included, see this as imprudence.

“Finally, while the Vice President is not exactly correct when he says ‘In four years from 2010 to 2014, the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in Nigeria’s history, $381.9bn. By contrast, the Buhari administration has earned $121bn from May 2015 to June 2018’, let us for the sake of argument say that he is right.”

Atiku further said that while he was the Vice President in 2006, Nigeria’s Economic Management Team, of which he was a prominent member, paid off Nigeria’s entire foreign debt of $30bn, at a time when he said the country was earning one third of what the Buhari administration is currently earning from oil. So, such arguments are puerile at best.

He advised the Vice President to choose whether he was for restructuring or whether he was against it and stick to his choice.

He said it was not in the interest of the professor of law to be jumping from one argument to the other without any clear point.

He rejected Osinbajo’s assertion that his (Atiku’s ) ideas on restructuring were vague, saying restructuring was a necessity, not an option.

In a statement he signed in Abuja on Tuesday, he accused Osinbajo of making a U-turn on the issue of restructuring.

The former Vice President said of Osinbajo, “Faced with an avalanche of public condemnation for his 360-degree turn on the concept of restructuring, it is understandable that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has written to Premium Times to douse the tension his comments created. However, in doing so, the Vice President should not attempt to revise history by saying that he spoke against ‘geographic restructuring.’

“I have been in the forefront of the discourse on restructuring since the 1995 Abacha Constitutional Conference and to the best of my knowledge, there has not been any term like ‘geographic restructuring’.

Punch