I’m In US For Nigeria’s Interest’, Says Atiku

It has become pertinent for me to speak about my ongoing

visit to the United States of America, where I met and I am

still meeting with US administration officials and business

leaders.

I travelled to the United States of America 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.

This has not materialised over the course of the last four

years because, as Chinua Achebe prophetically said in his

1983 book, “the trouble with Nigeria is the failure of

leadership.”

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.

New friendships should not be made at the cost of old

friendships. It is not an either-or situation. Right from

independence, Nigeria has nurtured a policy of non-

alignment. We borrowed from the Lincoln policy of malice

toward none and charity for all. Sadly, that policy has

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).

For this to happen, we need US firms who have divested

from Nigeria, to return. We need Procter and Gamble to

reopen their $300 million Nigerian plant which they shut

down last year. We need General Electric to reverse their

$2.7 billion pull out of Nigeria.

And my vision is for trade to go both ways. Nigeria has a lot

to offer America via her creative industry (Nollywood is the

world’s third largest movie industry) and rich mining

sectors (Nigeria’s Kaduna state is rich with gold ore). I am

also eager to find a market in the US for some of the half a

million shoes manufactured in Nigeria’s cities of Kano and

Aba everyday.

Someone somewhere said Nigeria’s youth are lazy. I am

one of the single largest employers of Nigeria’s youth and I

know that that assertion is false. My travels in Europe and

America is to sell the Nigeria that I know to the world that

does not yet know her. A Nigeria with not just a

hardworking youthful population, but a nation with some of

the smartest working people on earth. A nation that is open

for business and a Nigeria that is much more than oil.

And I am certain that if I am successful in selling this

Nigeria to the world, the world will come to Nigeria for

business. That is why I am in America. Because I believe in

JOBS – Jobs, Opportunity, Being United and Security and it

is time Nigeria and all Nigerians finally have the opportunity

to realize their true potential.

Atiku Abubakar is Presidential candidate of Peoples

Democratic Party and former Vice President of Nigeria

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