By Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
The Crisis We Cannot Ignore
Nigeria today holds the shameful distinction of being the poverty capital of the world — a nation sitting atop vast oil wealth while over 130 million of its citizens wallow in multidimensional poverty. Under the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, fuel subsidy removal without cushioning, naira devaluation, and galloping inflation have driven millions more Nigerians below the poverty line. Food prices have become weapons of mass suffering. Unemployment , particularly youth unemployment , has reached crisis proportions.
Against this backdrop, the 2027 presidential election is not merely a political contest. It is a referendum on survival. And that survival story begins tomorrow, Monday, May 25, 2026 ,when ADC delegates across Nigeria will gather for the presidential primary to formally hand Atiku Abubakar the platform he needs to rescue this nation.
Tomorrow is not just a primary. It is the first vote against poverty.
Atiku’s Economic Philosophy: Markets That Work for People
Atiku Abubakar is not a stranger to economic thinking. He is arguably the most economically literate major presidential candidate Nigeria has produced in a generation , one of Nigeria’s most successful entrepreneurs, a man who understands, from direct personal experience, how wealth is created, how businesses are built, and how jobs are generated in the real economy.
His economic vision rests on three foundational pillars:
1.Job Creation Through Private Sector Liberation
Atiku’s approach to unemployment is structural, not cosmetic. Rather than the hollow promise of government jobs — which Nigeria’s fiscal position cannot sustain — he advocates the liberation of the private sector from the stranglehold of bureaucratic bottlenecks, multiple taxation, and infrastructure failure.
His plan targets:
Aggressive deregulation of key sectors to attract Foreign Direct Investment
Reduction of the cost of doing business through regulatory reform
Prioritisation of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) , the true engine of employment in any developing economy
Investment in agro-processing, manufacturing, and the digital economy as employment multipliers
2.Restructuring as an Anti-Poverty Strategy
One of Atiku’s most consistent and courageous policy positions has been his advocacy for fiscal and political restructuring , returning more resources and more decision-making power to the states and local governments where poverty is actually experienced.
Some have asked: if Atiku believed in restructuring, why was it not fully implemented during his years as Vice President? The answer is honest and constitutional — the Vice President of Nigeria operates within the limits of a presidential system that concentrates executive authority in one office. Atiku was not President. He could advocate; he could not unilaterally legislate. What matters is that he advocated then, he advocates now, and as President he will have the full constitutional authority to act. Consistency across decades is not a weakness , it is character.
The current over-centralised structure concentrates revenue in Abuja while communities starve. Atiku’s restructuring agenda would:
Increase the states’ share of the Federation Account
Empower states to exploit their natural resources and develop competitive economic policies
Devolve key functions — agriculture, education, infrastructure — to governments closer to the people
Enable each geo-political zone to leverage its comparative advantage, whether in solid minerals, agriculture, technology, or tourism
Poverty cannot be solved from Aso Rock. It must be fought at the grassroots — and restructuring gives communities the tools to fight it.
3.Human Capital as the Core Anti-Poverty Investment
Atiku understands what many Nigerian politicians refuse to acknowledge: poverty is, at its root, a human capital crisis. An uneducated, unskilled, and unhealthy population cannot escape poverty regardless of how much oil Nigeria pumps.
His commitment to human capital development is not rhetorical. He founded and funds the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola ,not a political project, but a genuine world-class institution that has produced thousands of employable graduates. This is a man who invested his private resources in Nigeria’s human capital long before it became a campaign talking point.
His human capital agenda includes:
Massive investment in basic and tertiary education
Revitalisation of vocational and technical training to equip Nigeria’s youth with 21st-century skills
Healthcare system reform to reduce the crushing burden of out-of-pocket medical expenses on poor families
Social safety nets designed and funded to actually reach the vulnerable — not the politically connected
The Contrast Is Clear
The Tinubu administration promised a bold economic reset. What Nigerians got instead was pain without a plan , subsidy removal that enriched marketers while impoverishing commuters, currency unification that crashed household purchasing power, and a cost-of-living spiral that has turned poverty into the defining national experience.
Nigeria’s political elite , across parties and administrations, have too long governed for themselves, seeking medical care abroad, educating their children in foreign universities, and storing their wealth in foreign banks, while ordinary Nigerians suffer in hospitals without drugs, schools without teachers, and markets without affordable food.
Atiku offers something different: a coherent, tested, and passionate commitment to economic transformation that begins with the poor, centres the poor, and measures its success by the condition of the poor.
Tomorrow: The Moment of Decision
To every ADC delegate walking into the primary hall tomorrow , Monday, May 25, 2026 understand the weight of what you carry. You are not merely casting a vote for a candidate. You are casting a vote for the hungry child in Kano, the unemployed graduate in Lagos, the struggling farmer in Benue, and the market woman in Aba whose earnings have been swallowed by inflation.
This primary is not a formality. It is a declaration. A declaration that Nigeria is ready for leadership with a plan, with experience, and with the moral courage to confront the structures that have kept this nation poor.
Vote Atiku Abubakar at tomorrow’s ADC presidential primary.
Let his emergence tomorrow be the signal that resounds from Abuja to every ward, every village, and every suffering household across Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT — that the tide has turned, that the people have chosen, and that 2027 will be different.
A Vote Against Poverty
To vote for Atiku Abubakar , beginning tomorrow at the ADC presidential primary ,is to vote for an economy that works. Not for a privileged political class insulated from the consequences of their own misgovernance, but for the ordinary Nigerian who wakes up every morning wondering whether there will be food on the table.
It is a vote for restructuring that empowers states. A vote for jobs that come from a thriving private sector. A vote for schools that teach, hospitals that heal, and a government that governs.
Nigeria’s poverty is not inevitable. It is the product of bad governance. And bad governance can be changed.
Tomorrow is that beginning. Atiku is that change. Vote Atiku — May 25, 2026.
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B, Director General, The Narrative Force, thenarrativeforce.org
May 24, 2026
