A group of young politicians under the aegis of Atiku for President (AFP) on Wednesday called on former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to declare his ambition for the Presidency on or before January 1, 2018.

According to them, a victory for Atiku in the 2019 presidential election would put an end to all forms of economic mismanagement and political subterfuge being perpetrated by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The organisation said the best New Year gift Atiku could give Nigerians who have been victims of the economic hardship of the APC should be to “wake them up in the morning of January 1, 2018 and announce his intention to seek the highest office in the land in 2019.”

AFP in a statement by its Convener, Abdulrahman Abdulraheem, and National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Uchele Oguche, obtained by journalists in Jos, stated that it has a self-imposed mandate to mobilise at least four million youths with PVC to vote for Atiku in the 2019 election.

The statement reads: “We the youths of this nation have chosen Atiku as our next president and we are ready to move round every corner of the world with him like an unstoppable train to actualise this mandate. We hereby use this historic moment to call on the Waziri Adamawa to declare for President on or before January 1, 2018 so that this extraordinary journey to rescue our dear country from its gradual decent into the status of a failed state can begin in earnest.

“The best New Year gift he can give Nigerians who have been at the receiving end of the hideous irresponsibility of the APC-led administration, is to wake them up in the morning of January 1, 2018 and announce his intention to seek the highest office in the land in 2019.

“It is our well-considered opinion that the present political leadership in Nigeria is mediocre and other observant Nigerians will have no choice but agree with us that Nigeria cannot endure another four years of this embarrassing failure. The people in government vowed to fight corruption, but rather they are romancing corruption as evidenced in the myriads of embarrassing scandals they are enmeshed in.

“The APC has also failed to fix the economy, rather their indecision and sometimes curious decisions have caused loss of jobs. Based on their reckless utterances, acts of omission and commission, Nigeria is more divided along ethnic/religious lines today than at any other time in the country’s history.

“We have now found a man who has a history of creating wealth and employing millions of people even in his private capacity; a detribalized Nigerian who understands the diverse and complex nature of the nation, a sound mind who also has eagle eyes for talents and who will not waste time to appoint credible world class professionals who will work with him to reposition the economy. Based on his recent utterances and conduct, he has shown that Nigerian youths will be the bedrock of his administration come 2019.

“We therefore call on Atiku to desist from further wasting the time of the teeming Nigerian youths. We are aware that Atiku recently left the disaster-prone ruling party to rejoin the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to prepare for another shot at the Presidency, though he is still consulting. He must realise that the battle to rescue Nigeria from the rudderless status quo is not about him or any of the people he is consulting. It’s about us, the youths and the future of this potentially-great nation.

“Our core mandate is to mobilise two million Nigerian youths with Permanent Voters’ Cards who also have the capacity to mobilise at least one friend or relative with PVCs to vote for Atiku Abubakar in the 2019 Presidential election.

“We are a group of like-minded young, vibrant, cerebral and articulate grassroots politicians. We have established formidable structures in all the 8810 wards, 774 local government areas and 36 states of the federation as well as Abuja for the purpose of advancing the Atiku presidential cause. Our thousands of members and volunteers scattered all over the country are waiting for green light from Atiku to hit the ground running.”

AFP declared that the present administration has failed to fulfill its promises owing to its failure to make fuel available during the Yuletide even as Nigerians have to pay exorbitant price for it.

The group added that rather than create jobs as promised, the APC has continued to cause loss of jobs and has left the Nigerian youths disillusioned and frustrated.

It therefore argued that the only man who has the experience, clout and capacity to create jobs and make the economy work is Atiku, who has a history of job and wealth creation in his private capacity.

Update news