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<\/p>\nIn a statement he personally signed to mark Nigeria at 59, the former Vice President also lamented over reports of Nigeria being the headquarters of poverty in the world.<\/p>\n
According to Atiku: \u201cOn October 1, 1960, our nation\u2019s founding fathers could never have fathomed that 59 years after birthing the largest black nation on earth, we would be facing a situation where we do not have a free press.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll is not well when Nigeria is now officially the world headquarters for extreme poverty and out of school children, yet the cost of maintaining those in government continues to grow, while the needs of the governed are not being met.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd certainly, all is not well when the media cannot freely express itself without the fear that those who wield the big stick would use it on them for saying things as they are.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, rather than just call for prayers today, I am calling on all Nigerians to believe in Nigeria\u2019s betterment, to work for Nigeria\u2019s betterment, and to insist that no one in Nigeria, no matter how highly placed, shall be bigger than the laws of our land.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not all gloom and doom, however. There is still hope. Much hope. I took time to listen to a recent remark made by the Emir of Kano, HRM Muhammed Sanusi II about why we need to pay more attention to the issue of girl-child education.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an age-long truism that women are the teachers of a nation. I make bold to say that the greatness of our country, Nigeria has much to do with how well we educate how children, especially the girl-child.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy commendation goes to Governor @Bellomatawalle1 of Zamfara State for leading the way by massively investing in public education.Atiku Abubakar<\/p>\n
\u201cI also specifically want to cite the example of Chief Allen Onyeama and his public spiritedness which saw him offer relief to Nigerian citizens who were victims of the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa.Atiku Abubakar<\/p>\n
\u201cBy repatriating hundreds of Nigerians back home, at his cost, Mr. Onyeama and @flyairpeace, have revived hope in the Nigeria of our founding fathers\u2019 dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to quote Mr. Onyeama. When the first plane of repatriated Nigerian citizens landed at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Mr. Onyeama said: \u201cWhen I stepped inside the aircraft to welcome them, they mobbed me and started singing the Nigerian national anthem, there was nobody there singing about separation, they felt proud to be Nigerian, they rose in unison, that drew tears from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see, when we put Nigeria first, we not only revive the Nigerian Dream, we also revive Unity & Faith, Peace & Progress, which were the ideals our founding fathers had in mind when they came together to put forward this new & independent nation 59 years ago on October 1, 1960.<\/p>\n
\u201cNigeria belongs to all of us and we all have a role to play in making our nation great. Nigeria should be the beacon of hope, democracy and freedom, to not only the African continent but to the black diaspora the world over.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to ensure that this becomes the case, we all have a duty to support and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And this we must do, so help us God.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it is on this note that I wish all Nigerians a happy Independence Day. May God bless all of us and may God bless Nigeria. -AA\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 2019 Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, on Monday called on Nigerians to insist that no one \u201cno matter how highly placed\u201d is bigger than the laws of the country. In a statement he personally signed to mark Nigeria at 59, the former Vice President also lamented over reports of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[27,4148,8072,1545],"class_list":["post-156388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more","category-news","tag-27","tag-atiku","tag-atiku-2019-election","tag-poverty"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/140764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}