Atiku pledges 40% of cabinet to women, youth

The People’s Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has vowed 40 per cent of his cabinet, if successful in 2019 general elections, would be formed of women and youth.

“I give an undertaking that if by the grace of God, I am elected by you the good people of Nigeria, at least 40% of my cabinet would be women & youths,” Mr Atiku posted on Twitter on Wednesday.

“During my time in government, we designed our policies to help young people grow – stronger banks, telecoms etc. Many returned to Nigeria to start successful businesses.”

Mr Atiku lamented the spiralling incident of poverty in Nigeria, now cited as the country with the highest number of poor people in the world – despite massive resources.

“Nigeria under Buhari is now the world HQ for extreme poverty,” said Mr Atiku. “If we are to change that, we must empower women & youths.”

This was said after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on Wednesday, stated that 700 million people are still being left behind and are unable to meet their basic daily needs around the world

Of this sum, over 80 million are Nigerians.

Also, it should be recalled that the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, in August said that 87 million Nigerians live on less than $1.90 a day, making the country home to more very poor people than any other nation in the world.

It was contained in a statement published a day ahead of her scheduled visit to Nigeria in August.

Also, Mr Atiku decried the migration of doctors and other professionals to the western countries like Canada because of the preferred standard of living obtained there.

“Today, those young people are leaving again, to Canada etc. We are losing our best doctors & professionals.”