13/09/2025
ATIKU ABUBAKAR: THE ARCHITECT OF NIGERIAโS ECONOMIC RESURGENCE AND THE ANTIDOTE TO APCโS ECONOMIC CATASTROPHE.
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
โA critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy. The press must be free from state interference; it must have the economic strength to stand up to the blandishments of government officials; it must have sufficient independence from vested interests to be bold and inquiring, without fear or favour.โ โ Nelson Mandela
There are moments in history when destiny places the right man in the right place at the right time.
In 1999, Nigeria was that battered nation: economically emaciated, politically famished, and institutionally bankrupt. The banks were graveyards of savings, communication was a rare privilege, unemployment prowled like a hungry lion, and the world had labeled Nigeria a pariah state. Into this abyss stepped Atiku Abubakar, Vice President of Nigeria and Chairman of the National Economic Council, not as a ceremonial deputy, but as a commander of economic resurrection.
Under his watch, Nigeria recorded the highest economic growth rate in its history, reaching figures our current leaders can only dream of while they busy themselves peddling excuses. Like a physician of a dying patient, Atiku prescribed reforms, administered liberalisation, and revived a nation gasping for economic breath. His approach was not cosmetic but curative; not rhetoric but reform; not theory but tangible transformation.
Even amid global economic headwinds and structural challenges beyond any single administrationโs control, Atikuโs policies achieved stability and growth, proving that visionary leadership can bend even adverse circumstances toward progress.
Let us not forget: before Atikuโs reforms, Nigeria had fewer than 500,000 telephone lines. To own a telephone was a status symbol; one needed money, influence, and perhaps a few strings pulled at NITEL to be connected. Ordinary Nigerians were doomed to silence, waiting years for a dial tone that rarely came.
Then came Atikuโs vision. The telecommunications sector was opened, competition introduced, and within a few years, the silence of a nation gave way to the symphony of connection. By the time the reforms matured, over 200 million active lines had sprouted; proof that progress is not a myth but a manโs imagination put into policy. It was a leap from stagnation to stimulation, from exclusion to inclusion, from scarcity to abundance.
Just as he revived communications, he turned to the financial sector where despair was deepest. There was once a dark era when Nigerian banks were coffins of peopleโs sweat. Millions of Nigerians cried as deposits disappeared overnight. The refrain on the lips of the masses was bitter: โDeposit went the drain.โ Confidence in financial institutions was nonexistent.
Under Atikuโs stewardship, reforms were introduced that consolidated banks, strengthened regulations, and restored confidence. Nigerians once again trusted the banking system, businesses gained access to credit, and the capital market awakened. The story of despair was rewritten into a narrative of stability.
Now fast forward to the present: the APC and Tinubu have turned the banking sector into a theater of tragedy. Depositors no longer lose money because banks collapse; they lose it because the naira itself has collapsed. What is โฆ1 million worth when inflation devours it like a plague?
What is savings worth when the government devalues it overnight with careless policies? Nigerians are not only robbed of money; they are robbed of dignity. The plague of inflation is no less cruel than the plague of corruption; both steal futures before they are born.
What a tragic irony! The APC came to power with promises of change but delivered chains. They promised prosperity but perfected poverty. They preached integrity but practiced impunity. They boasted of competence but exhibited consistent cluelessness. Their words were silver-coated, but their deeds were rust-eaten.
Under Tinubu, Nigerians live in the paradox of suffering and smiling. This is not the Fela-esque satire of old, but the raw brutality of economic strangulation. Petrol prices now chase the dollar, food inflation has turned garri into a delicacy, and the naira drifts like a helpless swimmer, directionless and gasping for survival. And if the metaphor of drowning feels too grim, it is because the reality is grimmer than words can ever capture.
Is this governance or organised hardship? Is this leadership or legalised torture? We are witnessing the bizarre transformation of democracy into demo-crazy, where the government manufactures suffering and distributes it with efficiency. Indeed, Nigerians no longer ask โifโ hardship will strike, but โwhenโ and โhow severely.โ
Amid this gloom, one truth shines like a lighthouse: the foundations of Nigeriaโs prosperity today rest on the policies Atiku laid yesterday. Telecommunications, banking confidence, GDP growth, foreign investment inflow; all trace back to his foresight. The echoes of his leadership still ripple through every sector that once worked.
As Jean-Jacques Rousseau said, โThe world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.โ Atiku imagined a boundless Nigeria, and turned imagination into reality. Contrast that with APCโs boundless failures, turning reality into a nightmare. The difference is not abstract; it is lived, felt, and suffered daily.
Atiku Abubakar is not merely a figure of the past; he is the antidote to Nigeriaโs current malaise. He represents tested vision against recycled excuses, competence against confusion, and progress against regression. His legacy is not nostalgia; it is a roadmap.
Yes, critics often accuse Atiku of political shifts and ambition; while these shifts have sometimes raised eyebrows, the results of his economic policies remain unmatched, delivering stability and growth where none existed before. His reforms may not have been flawless, no reform ever is, but even his imperfections delivered unprecedented gains. Unlike APC leaders, his movements are driven not by hunger for powerโs perks, but by hunger for Nigeriaโs progress. Today, in the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku stands as the embodiment of a coalition capable of rescuing Nigeria from the jaws of APCโs failure.
And beyond his record, Atikuโs vision for the future is anchored on expanding the digital economy, powering industries with reliable energy, modernising agriculture, and positioning Nigeria as Africaโs trade and technology hub. He understands that in the 21st century, nations do not merely compete with resources but with ideas, technology, and human capital.
His agenda points towards empowering the youth with digital skills, building an industrial base supported by stable power supply, reforming agriculture into agribusiness, and driving Nigeria into the global value chain of technology and trade. His past is proof of competence; his future agenda is proof of preparedness. This is not nostalgia but necessity.
An African proverb warns: โWhen a child who can walk is carried, he will never learn to use his legs.โ Nigeria must learn to walk out of APCโs crippling embrace. We cannot afford to carry the burden of their incompetence any longer. The longer we carry, the weaker we become; the weaker we become, the harder it will be to rise.
Atiku Abubakar is not a messiah, no mortal is, but he is the most prepared, exceptionally experienced, and singularly visionary leader Nigeria has waiting in the wings. If 1999 to 2007 proved anything, it is that when given the tools, he can deliver transformation.
In Atiku, Nigeria tasted growth and Nigerians saw hope. Under APC, Nigeria is swallowing grief and Nigerians see hunger. In Atiku, Nigeria connected to the world. Under APC, Nigeria is disconnected from its own reality. This is not poetry; it is the harsh arithmetic of governance.
The choice is stark: light or darkness, competence or chaos, progress or paralysis. History has already recorded Atiku as the architect of Nigeriaโs economic resurgence; the question is whether Nigerians will give him the chance to rescue them from APCโs economic catastrophe.
For as Plato said, โThe measure of a man is what he does with power.โ Atiku used power to build; APC uses power to destroy.
And so, I, Aare Amerijoye DOT.B, write not with flattery but with conviction: Atiku Abubakar is the past that gave us progress, and he is the future that can rescue us from this present abyss.
Nigeria cannot afford another decade of excuses; the time for Atiku is now.
โYou may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.โ โ Mahatma Gandhi
And let it be said without hesitation: Nigeria must rise, not with folded arms, but with clenched fists of resolve. For if Atiku symbolises light, then the hour has come to cast out darkness. Let history not accuse us of silence when destiny demanded action.
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
Director General
The Narrative Force
