Presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday listed the dangers of allowing President Muhammadu Buhari to continue beyond 2019.
He said that reelecting Buhari will mean more job losses and urged them to support him in the February 16 presidential election to give room for more job creation and not losses.
Atiku stated this when he paid a personal visit to the NLC’s president and delegation at the International Convention Centre (ICC) at the start of NLC’s 12th National Convention.
His special assistant on public communication, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, made this known in a statement he made available to newsmen.
Atiku, who urged the worker’s union to vote out Buhari’s government, said “if Buhari is elected on February 16th for another four years, the NLC will not have many workers left to represent.”
The statement read in part, “As we know all too well, since 2015, our workforce has shrunken by over 14 million. And this is from a President who promised he would create 3 million jobs a year, but with over four years, he should have reduced unemployment by 12 million.
“So, 14 million jobs lost and 12 million net new jobs not created, comes to a deficit of 26 million versus what he promised us in 2015.
“If job losses continue to grow for the next four years at the same rate as the last four, the number of Nigerians without a job will rocket to 55 million.
“That is almost two out of three of our people without a job, without a pay packet and without the means to feed their family.”
He told union members that he was bringing a message of hope, assuring that “if by the Grace of God, the Nigerian people decide to elect him as President, he commits that he will create jobs, grow the economy and get Nigeria working again.”