Nigeria’s future is bleak, Former Vice President,Atiku says

A former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has said that the future of the country under President Goodluck Jonathan is bleak.

The ex-VP said Jonathan had been running what he (Atiku) described as a government of ‘clientelism’, in which only his cronies benefit.

He said many had surrendered their principles in order to belong to the network of beneficiaries to whom the President bestowed patronage. Continue....



He said, “In essence, what we have now in Nigeria is a form of patrimonial democracy. This is posing serious threats to the durability of democracy.

“Thus, for both of those who are inside and outside the network, the future is bleak.”

Atiku, currently a presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, spoke on Monday through the Director-General of the Atiku Campaign Organisation, Prof. Babalola Borishade, while closing the two-day Atiku Abubakar policy review summit.

The review summit held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The ex-VP noted that the presidential system of government under Jonathan had been turned to ‘presidentialism’, in which the President wields enormous power and favours only his cronies.

He said, “As a result, effective accountability and representation through popular democratic participation is giving way to personal rule and single party dictatorship rooted on politics of clientelism.

“Clientelism refers to the awarding of personal favours among patrimonial cronies. These favours take the form of public sector jobs, appointments, and distribution of resources through licences, contracts and tax waivers.”

Atiku said the cronies, in return, mobilised political support and loyalty for their patron, citing the example of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria.

He noted that those who stayed out of the network of cronies did not only remain excluded from the decision making process but also from allocated benefits of democracy. He explained that this was the reason why more people surrendered principles so that they could be integrated into the network.

He said, “Corruption, nepotism and official impunity have brought our country down to the bottom three per cent in the world in terms of political stability.

“Not only because it erodes civil liberties of citizens, thus creating a culture of political apathy and disenchantment among them, it also severely limits the extent to which government can be pressed to be responsive and accountable towards the citizens.”