In the run-up to the 2019 presidential election, Chief Atiku Abubakar who ran under the platform of the Peoples’ Political Party (PDP) promoted himself as the only candidate that will “Get Nigeria Working Again.” Atiku said then that he is the candidate with the experience and ideas to help Nigeria move in the right direction and achieve its potential. Atiku had claimed that given that so much of Nigeria’s economy has been based around oil, the need for strong leadership to reshape our productive sectors is now greater than ever before.
P0pllll0ut since losing the election, all is not well with some of the firms Atiku claimed to have used in wealth creation. The staff of Atiku Abubakar’s GOTEL Communications owners of a TV and radio station have lamented the non-payment of their salaries since September.
Gotel Communications, which is the only private radio and television station in north-east Nigeria, retrenched about 50 percent of its staff at the peak of Nigeria’s economic recession in 2016. Gotel is the largest media organization in Mr. Abubakar’s group of companies. Apart from Gotel Communications and Adama Beverage, the former vice president also owns the American University of Nigeria and Rico Gado feed mill factory.
With this breaking news development, Nigerians are wondering what is going on at Gotel that has made it difficult for Atiku’s firm to pay staff.
Remember that the politician Atiku attempted to convince Nigerians that if elected President, he will feed us from the nose while we relax at the foot of Adamawa mountain. In a Facebook address as a candidate, the former vice president promised to create millions of jobs to tackle rising inequality and insecurity in Africa’s top oil-producing country.
Atiku Abubakar’s campaign strategy as a presidential candidate was to conjure up images of a very wealthy man who invested his resources to create jobs. Take, for example, Atiku claimed that unlike Buhari, he is “an expert job creator who has founded many successful and thriving businesses including the American University of Nigeria, Yola.”
Are Atiku’s businesses still thriving? If he cannot pay his staff, can he still claim that he founded many successful businesses?
Atiku had claimed that too many Nigerians are not working and are living in poverty and insecurity. He asserted that almost all indices on socioeconomic and political development have plummeted, throwing over 70 percent of Nigerians into unprecedented poverty. Is Atiku now part of the problem?
In his autobiography, Chief Atiku takes credit for reforms of the banking sector, the auction of mobile phone licenses, as well as for an economic boom that enabled Nigeria to pay off much of its debt. In a chapter of his autobiography entitled, Making Money, Atiku also said that he recognized very early in life that he has a good nose for business. Does Atiku still have a good nose for business?
A source at Atiku’s Gotel Communications claims that “You don’t know when the next salary will come, hence, staff cannot plan. The staff of Gotel Communications Limited is being owed October, November, and December salaries.” The sourced added that “The founder of Gotel Communications Limited, Alh Atiku Abubakar, has done his best for the station, as the station has been single-handedly financed by him 100 percent. However, the latest developments cannot be determined by the staff of the organization. Is the station winding down? The staff needs to know their fate.”
What is shocking is that the man, Atiku, who was boasting that he will turn the Nigerian economy around for a few months cannot pay his staff. The man who was threatening that he will use his teeth to uproot trees cannot even chew on grass.
Atiku who promised to Get Nigeria working again cannot pay staff at his radio and TV Stations.
On Twitter @Churchillnnobi, Opera news
