By Blessing Chinagorom
Former Nigerian Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has said that the rising cost of food items, goods and services, malfunction in the national economy and degenerating state of the national and community security are all existential challenges that the country have to face squarely in the New Year.
Atiku who made this known in his New Year message stated that many companies have closed their operations in Nigeria and moved their enterprise elsewhere with clear policies and visions, adding that the situation of life for Nigerians keeps getting direr.
The ex-Vice President who double as the 2023 People Democratic Party Presidential candidate pointed out that to walk back from these throes of adversities will require a well -thought vision of National Planning that will deliberately make the common people of Nigeria the centrepiece of our development.
He said, “The Year 2024 is still new on its canvas; and so, there is ample time for the current government to champion a pathway to addressing the acute hardship that Nigerians are going through.
According to him, “The past year was definitely a challenging year, but the lessons that we took away from it are what should prepare us for the future that the New Year holds.
“It is my belief that one of the reasons the Almighty created time and season is for us to take stock of our realities and effect necessary amends.
“Certainly, many families and businesses already know the intensity of the trying times that we are currently going through – though we could have taken a completely different pathway, had the government been smarter with their policy prescriptions”.
The 2023 PDP Presidential Candidate called on the Federal Government to show a clear direction of its policy projections and desist from the subsisting behaviour of groping in the dark. While congratulated Nigerians for witnessing this New Year, and also called to double efforts to put respective families and businesses in good shape.