Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has declared that Nigeria’s economy, security, sovereignty, education, healthcare and infrastructure have all collapsed under the current administration.
He made the remarks on Tuesday at the African Democratic Congress national convention at the Rainbow Event Centre in Abuja, where he called on party leaders and members to commit to genuine and sincere change.
Atiku said political leaders from across party lines had pressured him to join the All Progressives Congress when the party was being formed, only for the country to deteriorate to its present condition.
“I remember when the APC was being formed, the entire political leadership in this country from various parties stormed into my house and said, look, if you don’t come into APC, this is not possible.
“They literally compelled me to join APC only for us to end in this state of affairs,” he said.
The former vice-president painted a bleak picture of the country’s current state, listing what he described as a comprehensive failure across every sector of national life.
“Our economy, gone. Our sovereignty, gone. Our security, gone. Our education, gone. Our infrastructure, zero. Healthcare, gone. Now, what kind of a people are we?” he said.
Atiku said the moment called for more than ordinary political activity.
He urged ADC leaders and members to treat the next electoral contest as a genuine opportunity to reverse the country’s decline, warning that half-measures would not be enough.
“We must rise and make sure that there is change and a genuine change, a sincere change to rectify all these challenges I have enumerated,” he said.
The former presidential candidate, who ran on the Peoples Democratic Party platform in 2019 and 2023 before his current political realignment, said those of his generation had entered public life not for personal gain but out of obligation to younger Nigerians.
“We are people of my own generation are in this game, if you call it game, because of you, young men and women, our children and our grandchildren,” he said.
Atiku said Nigeria had treated his generation well, but expressed doubt that the same could not be said of the country’s relationship with its youth, women and future generations under current conditions.
“This country has been good to us, but we don’t believe that this country has been good to the current generation, to the youth, to the women, to the future of this country,” he said.
“That is why we are today in ADC.”