What do you ask of citizens in their partnership with you?

It is with great adulation to God and a heart full of gratitude that I join other patriots to welcome Nigerians to the New Year 2024. 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 rising cost of food items, goods and services, the malfunction in our national economy and the degenerating state of our national and community security are all existential challenges that we have to face squarely in the New Year.

He used to remind us that every generation must dream of a greater Nigeria, but it is not enough to dream, - we must build. The Nigeria of our dreams will not come to us through rhetoric or sentiment; it will come only through collective resolve, discipline, and honest work. Shehu’s dream was not naïve. It was a courageous dream. He dared to believe that justice could triumph over corruption. That service could replace selfishness. That hope, if it is guarded by discipline and faith, could outlive despair. And he challenged each one of us not to wait for perfect conditions, but to act, to lead, to build, and to believe. Our youths in particular, need to note that our nation stands again at a turning point. As we face unemployment, insecurity, disillusionment, and division, some have lost patience and many have also lost trust. Yet amidst this despair, Shehu’s message to you all is: Do not give up on your country. Do not give up on one another.

Every election season, some politicians suddenly discover that you are "leaders." They give you caps. They give you T-shirts. They give you a little money. They ask you to insult opponents, disrupt campaigns or intimidate voters. But immediately after the election, they disappear. Your phone stops ringing. The promises vanish. And you are left exactly where they found you. Do not mortgage your future to people who remember your name only during campaigns. The greatest service you can render any politician is not fighting for him. It is insisting that he earns your vote through ideas, character, competence and integrity. That is the foundation of every successful democracy. And that is the kind of political culture we must build together. So, the question before us is simple: How do we convert frustration into national renewal? How do we transform the largest youth population in Africa into the greatest democratic movement our continent has ever witnessed?

Where competence matters more than connections. Where character matters more than political patronage. Where hard work is rewarded, and every young Nigerian has a fair opportunity to succeed. My dear young people, The greatest tragedy before us is not that Nigerian youths lack talent. The greatest tragedy is that Nigeria has lacked leadership worthy of your talent. That is why this election is different. This election is not merely about changing a government. It is about changing the direction of our country. It is about restoring hope. It is about rebuilding confidence. It is about creating opportunities. It is about ensuring that no young Nigerian feels compelled to abandon the country of his birth in search of dignity elsewhere. I believe in the Nigerian youth. I believe in your intelligence. I believe in your creativity. I believe in your resilience. And I believe that if we work together, there is no obstacle too great for our nation to overcome.

I Have Come to Offer You a Partnership to Build the Nigeria You Deserve. I greet you in the unbreakable and unconquerable spirit of the African Democratic Congress! Before I begin, let me ask the young people in this hall a simple question. If you were applying for a job today and submitted a certificate bearing one date, while another version of what purports to be the same certificate carried a different date and different signatures, what do you think your prospective employer would do? They would ask you to explain yourself. They might even reject your application. Yet today, serious questions remain about the exact certificate President Bola Tinubu presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission. One version reportedly says June 22, another June 27; questions have also been raised about the signatures and the description of the degree. I am not asking you to accept my conclusion. I am asking something much simpler: if a young Nigerian would be required to explain such discrepancies before getting an ordinary job, why should the man seeking Nigeria’s highest job be exempt from the same standard?

Nigerians are repeatedly told to endure because things will eventually get better. But leadership cannot endlessly demand sacrifice from citizens while offering explanations for their suffering. Leadership is not the art of explaining suffering. Leadership is the responsibility to reduce it. That is the choice that will confront Nigerians in the next election. I AM ASKING YOU TO BUILD WITH ME I have not come here merely to ask young Nigerians to campaign for Atiku Abubakar. I am asking you to take ownership of the future we are proposing and to participate directly in shaping it. For too long, young people have been useful to politicians during campaigns but expendable after elections. They are mobilised to fill rallies, dominate social media and defend political leaders, only to discover after victory that the important decisions are still being taken in rooms from which they are absent.

My dear Francis, thank you for taking the time to truly understand what I am proposing. That means a great deal to me. I am not restoring subsidy so that Nigeria can keep paying for imported petrol. I am restoring subsidy so that Nigerians can produce more at home, pay less for fuel, and keep more money in their pockets. That is the difference between import subsidy and production subsidy. Think about shoes. If government wants Nigerians to buy shoes more cheaply, it can spend public money making imported shoes cheaper, or it can support shoemakers in Aba to reduce their production costs so they can make more shoes here, employ more Nigerians and sell at more affordable prices. I choose the Aba shoemaker. I will do the same with fuel. We will support crude refined in Nigeria so our refineries can produce at a lower cost and you can pay less. But for me, this is bigger than fuel. I want the bus fare you pay every morning to come down. I want the cost of taking food from the farm to the market to come down. I want the trader to spend less. I want the barber, tailor, welder and small business owner to spend less on energy.

Details: ● Provide each citizen in the National Social Register with a dedicated medical savings account for routine healthcare such as consultations, medications, diagnostics, and preventive services ● Guarantee that every citizen is protected against major health costs, ensuring no one is pushed into poverty due to serious illness ● Allow citizens to use their health savings transparently and flexibly, giving them greater control over how they access care 3. Build modern digital health systems. Develop telemedicine and electronic medical records to improve access, efficiency, and quality of care. Establish a National Telehealth Access Programme (NTAP) to connect healthcare providers and patients nationwide. 60

Wa alaikumu salaam, and welcome. I'm glad to have you here. This platform, Ask AA, is one I have built as a public information portal, a place for Nigerians to engage with me directly on government policies and initiatives. It will grow into a Presidential Promise Tracker, where you can monitor the promises I make, follow how they are being implemented, and see exactly how public funds are being spent. That is how we build transparency and accountability at every level of government, not by asking you to take my word for it, but by laying the record open for you to examine yourself. I see you, and young Nigerians like you, not as a restless population to be managed or mobilised only at election time, but as the greatest national asset this country has ever produced. The innovators, the farmers, the creators, the engineers, the doctors, the teachers, the entrepreneurs, the artisans, you are the ones proving every day what the Nigerian spirit can do.

So ask me anything. The greatest service you can do is to insist that I earn your trust through ideas, character, competence and integrity, not slogans. That is the kind of partnership I have come to build with you.

MY COVENANT WITH YOU Our partne…" • Post by @atiku on X · https://x.com/atiku/status/2098476924813115799, 2026-09-11 (Post on X) "My dear Francis, thank you for taking the time to truly understand what I am proposing. That means a great deal to me. I am not restoring subsidy so that Nig…" • Candidate-approved answer, 2026-10-10, page 1 (CANDIDATE-APPROVED ANSWER) "My plan for you, Nigeria's young people, starts with this: you should not be asked to wait outside the room while your future is being decided inside it. It …" • Article by @atiku on X · https://x.com/atiku/status/2087552029358956958, 2026-08-12 (Article on X) "I Have Come to Offer You a Partnership to Build the Nigeria You Deserve. I greet you in the unbreakable and unconquerable spirit of the African Democratic Co…"