Nigeria\u2019s main opposition presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, said he\u2019ll sell the state oil company, which he called a \u201cmafia organization,\u201d and attract private investors to drive economic growth and create jobs if he wins office next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will liberalize the economy to create jobs,\u201d Abubakar, a 72-year-old former vice president, said Wednesday during a conference in Lagos, Nigeria\u2019s commercial capital. \u201cI will reduce the size of the federal government completely and hand over the responsibilities\u201d to the states or regions, he said.<\/p>\n
Abubakar is trying to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari, who won office in Africa\u2019s top oil producer in 2015 on the platform of the All Progressives Congress. A former vice president and wealthy businessman, he\u2019s accused Buhari, a 76-year-old ex-military ruler, of being inept at running the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been creating jobs for so many years,\u201d Abubakar said.<\/p>\n
Still recovering from a contraction in 2016, the economy of Africa\u2019s biggest oil producer has been a key campaign theme for all presidential candidates, alongside corruption and security. The West African nation is battling militants loyal to Islamic State and Boko Haram in the northeastern part of the country.<\/p>\n
Abubakar, the candidate of the People\u2019s Democratic Party, pledged to sell stakes in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the state-run oil firm with a longstanding reputation for inefficiency and opaque management, at any cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am committed to privatizing the NNPC,\u201d he told the conference. \u201cEven if they are going to kill me, I will do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abubakar also said he planned to reserve 30 percent of his appointments for women and to focus on rebuilding Nigeria\u2019s education system.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as I am concerned everything is based on education,\u201d he said. \u201cOur governments have really neglected education and pushed it to the back-burner of their policies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s main opposition presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, said he\u2019ll sell the state oil company, which he called a \u201cmafia organization,\u201d and attract private investors to drive economic growth and create jobs if he wins office next month. \u201cI will liberalize the economy to create jobs,\u201d Abubakar, a 72-year-old former vice president, said Wednesday during a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,15],"tags":[106,202,228],"class_list":["post-2647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-economy","tag-oil","tag-oil-production"],"yoast_head":"\n