Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has issued a warning that Nigeria will face significant challenges in 2024. In his 2024 New Year Message, Atiku, who was the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate in the 2019 and 2023 general elections, emphasized that it is important to take stock of realities and effect necessary changes in time and season. He called on President Bola Tinubu-led administration to show a clear direction of its policy projections and stop groping in the dark in 2024.
Atiku expressed his concern over the current intensity of the trying times many families and businesses are going through. He lamented that an entirely different pathway could have been taken had the government been more competent with its policy prescriptions. He expressed gratitude to God and welcomed Nigerians to the new year. He admitted that the past year was challenging but believes that lessons learned should prepare Nigerians for the future.
Atiku highlighted that the rising cost of food items, goods, and services, the malfunction in the national economy, and the degenerating state of national and community security are all existential challenges that the country will have to face squarely in the New Year. He pointed out that many companies have closed their operations in Nigeria and moved their enterprise elsewhere with clearer policies and visions, while the situation of life for Nigerians keeps getting direr.
Atiku believes that to walk back from these adversities will require a well-thought National Planning vision that will deliberately make the common people of Nigeria the centerpiece of development. He called on the current government to champion a pathway to addressing the acute hardship that Nigerians are going through. He emphasized the need for the government to show a clear direction of its policy projections and desist from groping in the dark.
Atiku congratulated all Nigerians for witnessing this New Year, and he wishes to call on everyone to double their efforts to put their respective families and businesses in good shape.