By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
Former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has assured that he will give a sense of belonging to everyone in the new government which he hopes the party will form.
Atiku who described himself as a unifier pledged to reverse the downward trend of the economy, fight insecurity, create jobs and revers the mis-governance of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government.
Atiku made the pledge in his acceptance speech after he was declared winner of the PDP Presidential Primary by the Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Sen. David Mark.
The elated Atiku who said that he is humbled by the trust vested on him by the delegates said that he will unify the country and marshal out a five-point master plan.
He said, “When I stood before you and Nigerians and declared my interest to run for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in that statement, I imagine five issue and pledge to unify this country and that was why I defined myself as a unifier.
“The reason why I feel that unity is very important for us is because the gunmen terrorizing this country does not distinguish between North and South, East and West, Muslims and Christians and I therefore, pledge that I will work to install unity. I was so committed that I was going to deal decisively with our security challenges in this country. I also pledged to confront our economy challenges, which was wrecked by the APC government.
“The PDP made Nigeria one of the most prosperous country on the African continent. We implemented economic reforms that brought about jobs, that brought about prosperity in this country. The APC came in and wiped out all those gains. That’s why I said today is a very, very historic day because it is going to give us an opportunity for us to revise all the misgovernance on the APC government.
“Let me also use this opportunity to call on my fellow contestants and assure them that I’m ready to cooperate and work with them and give them a sense of belonging in this party and our next government.
“My fellow compatriots, I want to appreciate your efforts in deepening our democratic processes in this party. It was a well, quality primary elections. So I commend you for that and I look forward to working with you very closely so that together, we can build this parties to a level where we can take over the government.
“As I said earlier, I want to appeal to the members of our party that have some grievances to please return to our party. We are willing, we are ready, the leadership of the party, our governors, and myself, to make sure that their grievances are resolved in the party. Let me also believe that there are internal mechanisms to resolve all disputes in this party. Let us make use of those internal mechanisms to resolve our disputes in our party, instead of going to various law courts, and getting contradictory rulings that are contradictory judgments. It is not going to augur well for the growth of all, it is a very, very democratic country. We have internal mechanisms to resolve all disputes. Therefore, I call on all members of our party to make use of those internal mechanisms”.
He called on all Nigerian to remember the poor people of the country and said that he will diversify the economy to surmount the revenue challenges the nation is currently facing.
Atiku equally thanked the leadership of the party especially the governors for working day and night to ensure that the convention was successful and urged all to bury all differences and work together to ensure that the party wins the general election.
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