Atiku Abubakar is known for jobs creation all over the country. In this piece, MUAZU ABARI writes on how this former vice president kept faith with his pledge to invest in employment generation in order to eradicate poverty.
Although William Shakespeare in his theory of ‘face constructions and heart content’ said, “There is no art to find the minds construction in the face.” But Shakespeare was a writer who conceived and wrote according to his own thinking and perceptions. No doubt, he was a great playwright, but his theory missed the target on this illustrious son of Adamawa state called Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Wazirin Adamawa.
This former vice president is one of the reason why Shakespeare theory of face constructions and heart content should not be taken seriously because he is, no doubt, a living proof that one can look good both within and outside as so far demonstrated by Atiku who continued to used his God-given wealth to bring succour to humanity in the form of employment generation and poverty reduction, a move which stamped him out among Nigerian leaders of today.
Atiku stands out
Adamawa state, no doubt, can boast of many political icons, business moguls, captains of industry, prominent sons and daughters of repute, with dignity and proven integrity who have not only excelled in their various fields of endeavours, but also made their marks in Nigerian socio-economic and political arena. These are people who ordinarily should be a source of inspiration to the younger ones and blessing to the state and its people, unfortunately however, their impacts are not felt by people of the state. Amidst this hopelessness and despair, God blessed the state with Alhaji Atiku who has continued to make the people of the state and Nigerians proud by setting the pace for other elites to emulate. Lately, this is through the establishment of industries, investments and businesses to make life worth living for the common man.
Commissioning of bank and industries
Blueprint gathered that it is in furtherance of this vision amidst increasing level of poverty and unemployment rate in the country that Atiku decided to further establish a financial institution and two additional factories namely Standard Micro Finance Bank, Woven Sacks Plant and Shrinks Laminate Plant all in his quest to kick poverty out of Adamawa and Nigeria in line with his industrialisation drive. All these were commissioned recently.
Atiku speaks
While speaking at the commissioning of the micro finance bank corporate headquarters in Yola, the former vice president decried the alarming rate of poverty in the country, noting that Nigeria has now become the headquarters of poverty in the world. He stressed that his vision is to see that everyone is gainfully employed.
According to him, “Nigeria has been the headquarters of world poverty. My vision is to make sure that everyone is gainfully employed. I want to give people the opportunity to be gainfully employed whether you have been to any school or not. Every person has a productive capacity; the only thing is that either we deploy our productive capacities in a negative way or the positive way.”
According to him, his decision to start from his own state of Adamawa is to convince other people that he can fight poverty even as he attributed the deteriorating security situation in the country especially the challenges of banditry, armed robbery and other social vices in the country to poverty. He therefore called for concerted efforts by all to fight this monster.
Fintiri applauds Atiku
Also speaking, Gov Ahmadu Fintiri applauded the former vice president for his vision, foresight, contributions and all he has been doing for the people of Adamawa. He described him as an illustrious son of the state who continued to make the state proud in both his private and public life. He therefore urged him to keep on the good work of making Adamawa work again so that the economy of the state can improve.
He further noted that Atiku’s vision is in tandem with the economic blueprint of his administration, to that extent assured him of his government’s commitment to partner with him and the bank for the economic prosperity of the state. He said his administration is ready to create an enabling environment for businesses to flourish.
According to Fintiri, “I am aware that besides the state government, His Excellency is the next employer of labour in our state, a development that endears him to the heart of the people of the state and Nigerians. On our part, we would continue to partner with him for the economic prosperity of Adamawa state and create that safer environment for business to flourish in Adamawa state.
“Since inception, we have been working hard to sustain the safe environment in order to attract more local and international investors into the state. I am proud to say that Adamawa state is now very safe for investors; so, we urge investors to leverage on the opportunity created to invest in the state.
“I want to congratulate the Standard Micro Finance Bank for all the landmark achievements in the last 29 years with 12 branches in the state. I am happy that we can find in this bank a reliable ally towards driving our agro businesses development plans (ADAS) which is aimed at unlocking the rich agricultural and livestock resources of the state.”
From there, both Atiku and Fintiri proceeded to the venue for the commissioning of the two newly established factories. Speaking at the event, the managing director of Adama Plast which houses the two factories, Alhaji Shehu Atiku Abubakar said, “The vision of our founder is to industrialise Adamawa state through building of factories, creating employments for the teeming youths of Adamawa and Nigeria at large; hence today, we are commissioning a part of that master plan. It is another promise being fulfilled.”
Other commentators
On what informed the establishments of these two factories, Shehu said, “The vision of our founder for this woven sacks factory is to first and foremost serve as an integration strategy to provide sacks for Rico Gado Nutrition Nigeria. Before now, Rico Gado was purchasing all its sacks from Lagos, but today, 100 percent of the sacks being used by Rico Gado is produced by Priam Group.
“Secondly, the woven sacks division was set up to address the needs of Adamawa agrarian communities and numerous factories packaging products with sacks. Today, with about nine million annually, the woven sacks division boasts of clients such as Plan Group and Kewalram Chanrai Group.
“The shrink plant was set up to ensure self-reliance of critical raw materials in order to guarantee the quality of output in our factories. Before now, Adamawa Beverages Ltd purchases approximately one billion naira worth of shrink from Lagos but with this investment, we now have enough capacity to cater for not only our needs, but all shrinks customers in Adamawa. This has reduced capital flight from Yola to Lagos. It has also created hundreds of more jobs and in the process reduced overall cost of packaging by 30 percent or 150m annually.
Shehu further noted that Priam group was established as an umbrella for all Atikus companies in Adamawa and beyond to integrate and create synergy among the entities which include Adama Beverages Ltd (ABL), Rico Gado Nutrition Nigeria, Priam logistics, hotel, TV and radio, food merchants Ltd, (chicken cottage) and Adama Plast which was being commissioned.
On their future plans he said, “The Priam Group has ambitious plan with new Rico Gado feeds to be commissioned in Abuja this year. A big expansion of the Adama Beverages Ltd to be commissioned next year and with a new rice processing plant in the pipeline, Priam Group plans to invest more than 20million USD in Adamawa state economy in the next two years. He added that these investments would enable Priam Group to reach a revenue target of 30bn by 2023 and 50bn by 2025.
This is also even as Gov Fintiri at the second leg of the event assured that government would do everything possible to provide an enabling environment for the business to thrive with a promised to also support Atiku in whatever he wants both politically and otherwise.