PRESS RELEASE: FLAG OFF ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE ATIKU/OBI 2019 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN - SEGUN SHOWUNMI

The Spokesman of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organization just few minutes ago had a Facebook live video to announce the official commencement of the Atiku/Obi Presidential Campaign.

In his words he said, ''Dear Citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Ours is a land of many hills, networks of crisscrossing rivers, lush green vegetation, and the most spectacular sunset in the world. Yet it is you the Nigerian people who are our great nation’s most beautiful treasure. So great is the value of every Nigerian, that on you alone can the power to determine your leaders, the custodians of the Nigerian will, be fully entrusted. 

The opportunity has come once again for you to determine those individuals who best embody that popular will, to manage your affairs for the term period of Four years. Needless to say, you have been inundated with the disruptive media advertisements and dissonant promotions of conversations, around what ought to be the issues in this campaign.

Kindly accept my sincere apologies that your normal lives and the daily activities of our industrious people may have to endure some more barraging of narratives for a while longer; from political parties and candidates, my humble self, and His Excellency; Atiku Abubakar, inclusive. But I want to say to you, that we have no real alternative.

The fathers and the founders of participative democracy took a leap of faith by insisting that those of voting age within any space have a right and a duty to have a say in who governs them, and how their affairs will be managed. That truly is the foundation of a government of the people, for the people, and by the people; which is the hallmark of our democracy and a grave responsibility that I must charge you to take very seriously.

As the campaigns commence today; I, on behalf of Atiku Abubakar; the former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Waziri of Adamawa and the Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party of Nigeria, entreat you to come along on a journey wherein I will be speaking about the issues that concern us as a nation.

With automation being predicted to replace an incredible Eight Hundred Million jobs globally by 2030, the issues we need to deliberate upon during these elections should be on how to reinstate for a start, the Eleven million workers who lost their jobs only Four years after we celebrated our emergence as Africa’s largest economy.

While nobody can restore the lives of over Twenty Thousand Nigerian civilians lost to boko-haram alone, or the scores of communities that have been sacked by criminal insurgents in the farmer/herdsmen crises; if we dwell our campaign on issues like reworking the security architectures of the nation, then there is genuine hope for the over Two Million internally displaced citizens of Nigeria, and the Nine Million innocent civilians in urgent need of focused intervention.

When you hear me and every member of the Atiku Presidential campaign insisting on an issue-based campaign, it is because we are insisting on opening up opportunities in the Nigerian economy; we are insisting on creating greater value for our people, and we are insisting on working hand in hand to unite the country and bring it back from the brink of a shamelessly ill-contrived disintegration. 

This issue-based campaign that will usher in the transformed Nigeria we all earnestly yearn for by 2019 is about getting Atiku Abubakar, all other leaders you appoint to all the elective positions, and every Nigerian wherever you may be; to get together, roll up our sleeves, and work out how we can put safe spaces over the heads of all Nigerians.

I sometimes ask myself why Atiku Abubakar bothers, and then I recall his humble beginnings in Jada, and where he has reached today. He enjoyed scholarships, both from the native authority and from the Federal Government. He also had the opportunity of serving for Twenty years in the security of a job in which He rose to the level of the Deputy Director of the Nigerian Customs.

Tapping from the opportunities available in private sector and business in Nigeria, He was privileged to have become one of the respected entrepreneurs who have created more opportunities in almost every industry. From education to agriculture; manufacturing to media; logistics to consultancy; and what have you, Atiku Abubakar has made giant strides and left a positive impact, and He owes it all to a principled Nigeria; emerging at the time, on solid democratic foundations.

Also; having had the opportunity to be the heartbeat of the Presidency as Vice President, I often debate with myself on if it would be okay for His Excellency to retire to the querencia of an idyllic family life with his children, from where he could leisurely pursue philanthropy; or if he has the energy within him, the passion and the plan, to transform this country and give our people the opportunity to bound into the Fourth industrial revolution?

This is a revolution which by the way is very inexorable, operosely demanding, and defiantly takes no prisoners… so many of the great nations we admire today will inevitably be left behind in the coming revolution, and the reason why I know he ‘bothers’ to champion the Nigerian cause, is because the inconvenience of electioneering is not a valid enough excuse for him to fetter the transformation that will poise our great nation to maximize the chances of seizing the glorious future for a greater Nigeria.

Atiku Abubakar bothers because he recognizes it as his responsibility to let every Nigerian know that we have a brilliant chance to build a brighter future for ourselves, if given the basic opportunities of a functional Nigeria. He bothers because “Every generation must out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it, or betray it”.

As such, I have to reiterate that this campaign must be about the issues. Do not hesitate to ask the questions you wish to have answers to, but let them be the questions that allows us to show you the roadmap to this our noble vision. We must; as a matter of urgency, detoxify the political arena; and with your help, His Excellency plans never to stray from the appropriate narratives and only accommodate the pertinent issues.

I know Atiku Abubakar has been thinking about this for a longer period; and perhaps it will take his rivals a bit more time to see the global advantage in reducing the narrative tensions and divisive politics which Africa has gotten its self locked into. As citizens, Atiku Abubakar bids you to do what is your duty. Your duty is to be peaceful, your duty is to be law abiding, but for the purposes of selection, your duty is to get yourself ready to exercise that sacred franchise that participatory democracy offers you by going out en masse to vote.

As our volunteers, staff, supporters, and the entire Atiku Presidential campaign train moves through the nooks and crannies of the country, I plead with you to welcome them with open arms; they are your friends and neighbours, your colleagues and your kinsmen. Listen to them; provide them with the questions that they may be able to answer, and accept my assurance that we will pass on to Atiku Abubakar, the questions beyond our scope if any. As a fan of the media, you are all witness to His Excellency’s presence in the public spaces of all popular media; this is because the voice of every Nigerian matters to him.

Welcome to the campaign seasons of the 2019 general elections. A platform the Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party intends to utilize in showing the entire world that African democracy has indeed come of age. Join us, and together let’s get Nigeria working again.

SIGNED:

SEGUN SHOWUNMI

DIRECTOR, MEDIA AND PUBLICITY

SPOKESMAN: ATIKU PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ORGANIZATION