Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has tried to explain his inability to become president of Nigeria since 2007 despite several attempts.
For him, all boils down to political elite conspiracy against his presidential ambition.
According to Atiku, who spoke with journalists in Abuja on Sunday night, he has failed to become president since 2007 because the political elite are scared of his independent mindset.
The conspiracy, he said, had been successful because Nigerians were not politically sophisticated.
In his view, t is unfortunate that the electorate rely on the political elite to dictate who should be elected or not.
“It is what I call the conspiracy theory of the political elite. If you are not going to be used, if you are not going to satisfy their personal aspiration, they won’t allow you. They say I am independent, principled and so on. That is part of the problem they have with me,” he said.
Atiku promised to privatise the nation’s petroleum industry, if elected president in 2019.He told reporters: “The United States pumps more oil than Nigeria, yet they don’t have a Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
“If I have my way, I will hand over the entire thing to the private sector and I will get more money than what the government is getting.”
Nigeria’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources oversees the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which is often criticised for its inefficiency and lack of transparency.NNPC manages joint ventures between the government and international oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Chevron.
