He said this on Monday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
Specifically, he said with the nation’s increase in population and decrease in availability of jobs, Nigeria desperately needs someone Like Atiku who can create more jobs.
He said, “We are of the opinion that right now, Nigeria has lost more jobs for a population that is young and growing (at the last count, 12 million or thereabout, sometimes 13) and therefore, you need someone that can really create jobs because we have a young population.
“The implication of having a young population is that you could really double your population in a very short time and if you’re not taking job creation very seriously, you could implode your country just on the weight of the number of people. So, we need someone who can create jobs. Atiku can create job”.
“The indicators from the CBN and the world bank is that we could slide back into a recession if we are not careful.
“We need to bring someone into government who understands how to run government and open it up, so that private sector dictates can then push government and you can then create good opportunities for private sector people to come and help you develop the company like you see all over the world.
“Atiku is a businessman. He’s run a business well. He knows what it takes to partner with the private sector, he knows what it takes to bring foreign direct investments into the country. He has done it before and he can do it again.
“He can get the economy working again. We cannot be the most miserably poor people in the world and be happy with that. We need someone who is going to bring business-like discipline into the running of government, that’s why we are saying let’s get Nigeria working again, let’s put Nigeria in charge,” Sowunmi said.
Beyond that, Sowunmi believes he can eradicate poverty and put food on the tables of the poor masses.
“Nigeria is very divided now. We fought a civil war sometimes ago and for some reason or the other, we found ourselves in a situation where the country is just divided. We are no longer dealing with just terrorism.
“We are dealing with animals and farmers and herdsmen. We are dealing with kidnapping and a whole lot of issues that seem to have divided us around ethnic lines, religious lines and all of the lines that you can possibly imagine.
“We need someone who has significant buy-in from all the sections of the country, who can pull us back again. A democrat who listens and takes consensus. Someone who considers restructuring or conversations around restructuring, important enough to hold.
“Nigeria has major security challenges. A lot of people have tried to solve the security challenges but somehow we’ve not been able to. We are of the opinion that one of the reasons why we are not able to solve the security problem in the country is to find someone to manage our cross-border issues.
“We believe that Atiku can get Nigeria working again, he can put food on the people’s table,” he said.
