Earlier in the week, comedian I Go Dye wrote an open letter
to 2019 Presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar telling him not
'to use sentimental empathy on the youths to express his
political ambitions'. (Read HERE).
Recall that when Atiku resigned form APC two weeks ago,
he mentioned that the APC had forgotten about the Nigerian
youths.
Atiku Abubakar has now replied him and he did it via
another social media tool called 'Medium' to show he is
tech savvy and young at heart.
Read his response below;
"Dear I Go Dye,
I read your post on Instagram. It was hard to miss it
because it was on every major news website. I
would like to say that you were mostly right. The
questions you raised in your post are similar to the
ones I have been asked by other young people on
social media, so I am replying this not just to you
as a person, but to all young Nigerians who have
asked similar questions.
Firstly, you are right. The Nigerian youth have often
been taken for granted, and almost every leader in
our history has taken young people for granted. But
it’s important to point how this started?—?for people
like me who saw Independence; our leadership was
mostly driven by young people. Then came the
coups, and the civil war, and then more coups.
Nigeria ended up with a long period of military
dictatorship for many decades, in which time; those
young leaders aged, but still remained leaders. Fela,
Gani, Enahoro, and Beko were young leaders, yet
remained leaders until their demise. That was
because of the instability brought on by decades of
instability.
By the time we got to 1999, the young people of the
day had not been prepared for leadership, because
there was no leadership or apprenticeship process
under dictatorships. This is one of the reasons the
age of leaders has continued to rise. That was
because of the leadership stagnation brought on by
decades of political instability. Imagine a school
that did not graduate any students for 5 years, by
the time the top class finally graduates, you will
have a backlog of undergraduates.
Our young people are not to blame; we need to
remedy this national failure. Last week, there were
local government elections in Akwa Ibom State, with
over 60% of the seats won by young people, less
than 35 years old. That’s how progress can be
made. Young people need to participate from the
grassroots, all the way across board. Appointments
are good, but getting elected is even better. I also
understand the issues around funding elections
which keep women and young people out, and I will
address this in an article I am publishing soon.
I do understand your frustration on the issue,
however. I tell people my age that to understand
young Nigerians, we need to understand the
difference between Nigerian and Naija. Naija
embodies the hopes and dreams of young Nigerians,
the country they love and long to go home to when
they are abroad. Naija is the country that brings
them pride in music, film, comedy, fashion, and
technology. It is the country of Wiz Kid, Asa, David
O, Tuface, the Olympic bobsled team, Iwobi and Don
Jazzy Again.
Nigeria on the other hand, is the country of their
parents, the country where leaders are constantly
failing them, of Boko Haram, of herdsmen violence,
of recessions and joblessness. Our young people
need us to make our country live up to the
aspirations of Naija by fixing the problems
associated with Nigeria.
I think it’s important to address the accusation
about my tenure as Vice President, that I did
nothing for young people. Firstly, as VP, I can only
be judged on the responsibilities I was given. A VP
obviously is not the driver of government. For
example, you can’t blame Prof Osinbajo for all that
is going on with the current government. He can
only do what he’s allowed to do.
But let me speak about what you can judge me by,
my assigned responsibilities. As VP, I assembled
what is arguably the best Economic Team ever in
Nigeria. It was made up of young, world class
professionals, who came home to work. Some of
those professionals are now political leaders,
governors and world leaders in their own right.
If you ask what our first task was, coming into
government in 1999, it was to bring stability to the
economy after decades of military rule. For example,
between 1999 and 2003, oil prices then were
hovering between $16 and $28 yet we managed to
pay up salary arrears from decades back, clear up
our national debts and built up foreign reserves. Our
GDP grew at the fastest rate we’ve seen since the
return to democracy.
You mentioned that I never brought young people
into leadership, but my record speaks differently. I
have a proven record of bringing young, unknown
professionals into service. Many of the professionals
and ministers I brought in were in their 30s and
early 40s. Some of those young leaders have
become governors in their states. I went to the
World Bank and met a bright lady, convinced her to
come back home, and she became a star in our
government. To show you we had effective
leadership, the same lady could not replicate her
exploits under a different government.
I was also in charge of privatization and I have
witnesses that I never interfered with the process. I
never bought anything belonging to the government.
I was quite wealthy before coming into government,
with declared assets worth hundreds of millions of
dollars in 1999 (which was put in a trust when I
became VP); so it was understandable that many of
the wealthy Nigerian business people who
participated in the privatization programme were my
friends. Did I use my influence to get them better
deals? No. As the then DG of BPE testified under
oath, I never used my position to interfere with his
work.
My legacy as Vice President, I would say is the
banking consolidation process, for which I gave
political backing for. Many big people were putting
a lot of political pressure to not change the status
quo, but we knew that if that consolidation was not
done, Nigeria could not grow. Because of that
banking consolidation, Nigerian banks don’t fail
anymore the way they used to.
I oversaw the telecoms revolution, which is why
young people like you, I Go Dye, now have a
flourishing career. Under our tenure, we witnessed a
large repatriation of Nigerians back to Nigeria, driven
by the hope of the recovering economy. It is sad
that many of those young people are heading back
abroad now?—?this is to show you that leadership
matters.
I know many of these have been forgotten because
it was a long time ago, and successive
administrations did not follow up on the progress we
made. But that is also not to say we were
blameless. I was largely frozen out in the second
term of our tenure, and I regret that we had that
disagreement with my boss. Some say I was
disloyal, but I looked at the events in Zimbabwe
recently, and it gives me confidence that I did the
right thing fighting the attempts to elongate the
presidential tenure beyond eight years. If I did not
win that fight, do you think we would be having a
discussion on young people getting into leadership
today?
Intels. I want to address this because you
mentioned it. It was the Shagari government that
started the Onne Port and later abandoned it. In
summary, my business partner and I saw an
opportunity to build Nigeria’s oil industry using
world class infrastructure, but driven by Nigerians.
We went out and took loans to build the facilities,
but as we went on, more opportunities opened up,
which allowed us access to even more capital. We
ended up borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars,
mostly from Europe, to build the port, singlehandedly
charting the course of Nigeria’s oil industry.
Honestly, I did not ever think we would be that
successful, which was why I kept my day job, when
we started it. It was just what you would call, a side
hustle, but it grew so big, and I had to quit my
government job to focus on it. Today, every oil
major uses the facilities we built. The government
only became clients after the oil companies. Our
company has expanded to several countries in
Africa. Even the FG has seen that that company is
the most competent logistics company in Africa,
which is why it gives Intels the most complex
operations to manage.
But Intels as a corporate citizen is loved in the
locations it operates. That’s because we invest in
scholarships, hire young people from the community
and train them to become world class technicians.
As CSR, we have gone into partnership with the NFF
to train young Nigerian footballers, and provide
support for the local league. We are loved by the
youth in our local communities.
In my home state of Adamawa for example, I’ve
created over 50,000 direct jobs and 250,000 indirect
ones. We are the largest private employers of labour
in the state only second to the state government. It’s
not a lot, but it does help reduce unemployment.
Who do you think are holding those jobs? Yes,
young people.
I Go Dye, I’m not a messiah. I do not promise
Eldorado or $1 = N1. But I always ask to look at the
economic progress we made under my leadership
and what I am doing in private business and judge
me by those. People say I became rich in
government. It’s a lie. I had hundreds of millions of
dollars in assets declared in 1999. My businesses
(my shares of which were held in a Blind Trust while
I was in government) continued to grow since then.
I was able to personally bankroll the PDP back then,
so surely I was not poor. But I understand it is
politics. So it’s normal to be called names. But how
come in all these years, none of my opponents has
found any evidence to indict me?
The people who are afraid of me changing the
status quo they enjoy will always try to frighten
young people about me.
Some people believe youth empowerment is giving
handouts to young people instead of building a
strong economy. They are wrong. They want to give
handouts so they can control young people. But
how long can we continue like that? Our country is
borrowing to pay salaries, yet we are still holding on
to outdated models just so we can control young
people for elections.
The success of young Nigerian entrepreneurs in IT &
technology, retail, music, and arts shows that given
the chance, they can run anything. My job is to be a
bridge, which supports our young people achieve
these ideals. I will never say only I can do this. I
can’t do it alone. I need your support, I Go Dye, so
help our economy grow, to ensure that within 10
years, our young people can take over completely.
In summary, I Go Dye, I am not a person who says
what he cannot do or show proof. I am giving you
an invitation to sit down and ask me any questions
you may have. I would also like to take you around,
show you some of the businesses I have built, and
let you speak to the young people who run those
places. It is good to try to convince you that I can
do better by our young people, but it is even better
to show you. Send me a direct message on Twitter,
and we will take it from there"
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