Speaking while addressing a crowded town hall meeting in Aba, the Abia state commercial city on Wednesday, Atiku Abubakar, told the South East business community that President Muhammadu Buhari must be voted out of the office to enable the business to grow in the region and the country at large.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, observed that the president does not have the capacity and the will to tackle the numerous challenges facing southeast business including the issue of non-functional ports.
According to The Tribune, Atiku who chanted “Buhari must go” to the audience, added that as a businessman himself, he feels their pain.
He said: “Of course we know that we have to make the ports work better and more efficient but nobody in this government understands the functions of the ports. Nobody! Whether it is a dry port, whether it is a wet port, whatever port it is, nobody in this government understands the workings of the ports.
“Tell me, how are they going to solve the problems for you? You have no business voting for APC, I beg you.”
The former Vice President told his audience that no interaction with the business community is complete without meeting the southeasterners who he observed are dominant in business around the country.
He said: “I am delighted to come and interact with the business community because everywhere you go, it is the southeasterners. So, naturally, if we want to know the pulse of the business community, you have to come here (Aba).”
Having listened to catalogue of complaints about the business environment in the region, Atiku promised to do whatever is within the law to remedy the situation if elected as president.
He stated: “I will do whatever I can to promote business as long as it is within the confines of our laws, not because I am a businessman but I want to see the prosperity of the people and the prosperity of our country.”
Atiku noted all that he had been told by the business community about the difficulty they faced is factual. “We must listen to you because all that you said is true and factual. The challenges you have enumerated for me are quite evident.
“I know and I feel your pains because am also one of you. But we have to work together to remove those challenges, those pains.”
Atiku recalled that it was PDP administration that established dry ports in the country, wondering: “So, why would we not want them to function properly. If you want them to work, you’d better return PDP power. This government doesn’t have the capacity, the will to do it.”
He also said that previous PDP government set up the Ease of Doing Business but that “this government has completely destroyed it.”
He therefore, assured that if elected, his administration would simplify things for business, promising to make registration of business possible from one’s own computer.
“We have two great businessmen in myself and Peter Obi (his running mate). Nigeria has not had this since independence. The only government that has tried to solve a business problem is PDP,” he stated.