‘NIGERIA’S Senate President, BUKOLA SARAKI maliciously Prosecuted by APC, I’m the Happiest Man that he’s back in PDP’-ATIKU ABUBAKAR, former Nigeria’s Vice president
…Subjected to the most degrading treatment despite his status as the nation’s number three citizen
* ‘If elected Nigeria’s President in 2019, I have vowed to devote 21% of the Federal budget to education’
EX-NIGERIA’S VICE PRESIDENT, ATIKU ABUBAKAR contesting the nation’s 2019 Presidential election under the banner of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has come out in full defense of incumbent Senate President, Bukola Saraki over the latter’s ‘cross-carpeting’ from All Progressives Congress (APC) to PDP. He expressed happiness that Saraki has resigned officially from APC, as he laments Saraki’s ordeal at the hand of APC.
In a press statement on the Facebook page of ‘Waziri-Adamawa’-being the chieftaincy title of Atiku, he states: “I received the news that the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, has resigned from the All Progressives Congress, with great joy. Senator Saraki’s ordeal at the hand of the All Progressives Congress is all too familiar to lovers of democracy in Nigeria and around the world. Leaving a party which maliciously prosecuted him and subjected him to the most degrading treatment, notwithstanding his status as the nation’s number three citizen, took courage, and I commend him.
“What the APC did to Senator Saraki is what they have also done to Nigeria as a nation. They have degraded our democracy and our economy. Saraki is a product of the Peoples Democratic Party, under whose banner he became a Presidential Adviser, Governor and Senator. The PDP’s ideology and political philosophy is conducive to Senator Saraki’s political leaning.
“I therefore not only welcome Senator Saraki’s resignation from the APC, I also urge him to go one step further and join the only party capable of enshrining genuine democracy in Nigeria as well as lasting economic progress. I urge Senator Saraki to join our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party.
On plans to ensure education in Nigeria highly impact on the people if elected Africa’s most populous black nation on earth, Atiku re-affirm his plan to devote 21percent of the federal budget to education.
Atiku said this in response to the feat by Apple Inc which became the first private company in the world to be worth $1 trillion on Thursday, August 2, 2018. In an opinion editorial sent in for publication in THISDAY newspapers, Atiku, a businessman and avid educator, said that knowledge was the main raw material for the founding, development and success of Apple Inc.
In the article titled ‘What Nigeria Can Learn From Apple’s Trillion Dollar Status’, Atiku said: “I pledge that if I am chosen by my party, the Peoples Democratic Party, to be its Presidential candidate, and if I am subsequently elected President by Nigerians, I will go above and beyond the United Nations recommendations and ensure that a minimum of 21% of the Federal budget is devoted to education.”
The former Vice President is the founder of the American University of Nigeria, Yola and has built up the institution as Nigeria’s premier centre for the training of future knowledge workers.
Atiku is the front-runner for the PDP ticket and was the first major politician to leave the ruling APC for the main opposition PDP.
