Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan has given his reasons for backing Atiku for Presidency.
He revealed this in an opinion article posted on the Vanguard News.
Mr. Omokri said “My support for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is purely on ideological grounds. He personifies the brand of politics I have believed in from my childhood, which can be summarised as secular, free market based and privatisation led.
“He believes in meritocracy and wants to restructure Nigeria.
“And most of all, he is a lover of education, who has spent his own funds to establish the American University of Nigeria, Yola, which is one of the best private universities in Africa, as well as the first American-style university in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Through that institution, he gave scholarships to hundreds of indigent students, including some of the #ChibokGirls.
“What that tells me is that he loves education and would fund ASUU. And I am very passionate about education, because I see it as the only vehicle through which Nigeria can go from third world to first world in a generation.
“I also support him because he is INDEPENDENTLY wealthy. He co-founded INTELS, one of the largest oil and gas, and ports services firms in Africa, in the 80s. And before he got into government, INTELS was already worth almost a billion dollars (it is worth much more today).
“Of course he has been accused by his political opponents, but then, that is what political opponents do. They accuse. However, consider that Atiku Abubakar is the most investigated politician in Nigeria, yet, NOTHING untoward was found against him.
Accusation can come from political opponents. But an accusation is not a fact!
“People say he is going to privatise the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. To those people, I ask, do you have regular fuel today? Do you have good unadulterated fuel today?
“The reason for that is because government is not good at running businesses. And we know because Nigerians used to have scarcity of cement. But that all ended in 2002. You know why? Because Atiku Abubakar pushed for the privatisation of the nation’s previously public cement factories.
“Today, Dangote, who bought those plants, now employs five times the number of people in them, that the government used to employ at those same plants. Additionally, the product is now plentiful and affordable.
“The same thing will happen if we privatise the NNPC. Productivity will increase, corruption will decrease, and availability of petroleum products that will not destroy your vehicles will also increase!
Mr. Reno also claimed that no presidential candidate is more prepared than Atiku Abubakar.
