Former Vice President of the nation, Atiku Abubakar, has hit back at critics who say he is desperate to run for Presidency stating that he is qualified, not desperate.
Speaking during his visit to delegates of the Edo State chapter of the PDP whom he went to meet to obtain their support, he said that he could have taken power back in 2003 if he was desperate and that desperation isn’t what drives him, but rather the ideas he says he is still able to give the country and help better the country’s current situation.
Atiku said: “What do you expect my critics to say? And there is nothing wrong with entering the race. I can run as many times as possible.
“I am fit and qualified. I still have ideas that I believe that are going to put this country on the right path. So, what is wrong with running?
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“I am not desperate and if I were desperate, I would have taken the Presidency in 2003. If I were desperate, I would not have stepped down for (late Moshood) Abiola. I am not desperate.”
Atiku also accused the APC of throwing the nation into retrogression and that things just keep getting worse and worse. He noted that since the APC took power, a total of nine million jobs had been lost.
He said: “Since the APC came into power, it said it was going to create three million jobs. It has lost three million jobs every year and today, we have 11 million young Nigerians not working.
“It is only the PDP that can create these jobs because we have done so before. We have created jobs before; we have brought prosperity before in this country. We have unified this country before and we have ensured that there was equity in this country before.”