Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 poll, says he assumed his former boss, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo will support him in his bid to become Nigeria’s President come 2023.
While taking Obasanjo’s support for granted, Atiku said he has opened conversation with him on telephone and believed has his support.
“ I have been talking to him on the telephone but I have not gone to him since I emerged as a candidate.
“I definitely need his support. As my former boss, I assume I have his support. He does not have any better candidate other than me for the 2023 presidential election,’’ he told ARISE TV duo of interviewers of Dr. Reuben Abati and Tundun Abiola on Friday monitored by Persecondnews.
On allegations of corruption leveled against him in past years, Atiku said the allegations, which were unfounded, were investigated and the government found nothing against him.
“ I challenged anyone who has any corruption charge against me to please bring it up. Yes I was investigated and nothing was found against me.’’
The Vice-President in the Obasanjo administration 1999 to 2007 explained that as a businessman from youth he made his money from doing business.
According to him, there is no law that forbids a public officer from engaging in business so far it does not conflict with his job.
“As a young Customs officer at Idiroko border in Ogun State, I bought a Peugeot 504 which I used in commuting passengers from Cotonou to Lagos and Oyo State. I have been doing business since then.
“There is no conflict of interest and there is no law that says as a public officer I cannot engage in legitimate business; so I made my money doing businesses,’’ he told ARISE TV.
On security, Atiku restated his commitment to the creation of state policy to complement the federal police.
“If I become President, we will amend the Constitution to create state police. When I was growing up, there was local police and they were feasible in my area.
“There should be a decentralization of the Police in Nigeria. We need to recruit more people into the Police, train and equip them. They are inadequate security men particularly the police.
“Egypt of about 100 million people has 2 million policemen in the streets while Nigeria of over 200 million people has less than 300, 000 policemen; so they are grossly not enough to police the country.
“In the U.S., there are levels of police; there is the federal police, state police even the metropolitan police,’’ Atiku stressed.
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