Atiku Promises Women, Youths N4.4tn Business Support Fund At Akure Rally

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has promised to set aside special funds to empower women and youths in their businesses if voted into power.

The former Vice President made this declaration on Wednesday when he staged his campaign in Akure, Ondo State alongside his first wife, Titi.

Flanked by his Vice Presidential running mate and Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, newly sworn in Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, who’s the chairman of the Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, and other top members of the party, Atiku pledged to reciprocate if the PDP leads again in the state in 2023 presidential election.

He recalled that the state provided the highest votes in 2019 for him in the South West zone when he ran a joint ticket with the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi.

Obi defected to the Labour Party in May, a few days to the PDP presidential primary election.

Atiku said his top priority are the women and youths as he will focus special attention to deal with their issues while also promising to tackle insecurity headlong.

“We want to show you that we appreciated what you did for us in the last election.
You gave us the highest votes in the last election in the south-west.

“We will not forget you. If you repeat the circle again, we promise we will definitely deal with insecurity. We will eliminate it,” he pledged.

“We will also make sure that all the major roads linking Ondo State and other parts of the country are made motorable.

“I have also undertaken to make sure that our young men and women…you are the ones who are gathered suffering in the sun today. And you are the ones who will vote for us and protect the votes for us.

“I assure you we will set aside enough money to make sure that we call you for your jobs, for your security and for your families,” he said.

The presidential candidate also revealed, “That’s why in our policy document we said we will set aside $10b to make sure that we provide small and medium scale enterprises for young men and women to create jobs.

“It’s our number one priority. We must empower our young men and women so that they can have a brighter future for themselves.

“Our people of Ondo State; we promise that we shall provide enough funding for education so our university can continue with their work, not what the APC are doing today.

“Today, for more than 8 months our universities are closed simply because they don’t care about education, they don’t care about your future. We promise it is not going to be the same again.

“You can compare what the PDP did in 16 years and what the APC has done in their 8 years.

“You are worse off. Are you not? You want a repeat of APC again?”

The presidential candidate of the PDP assured the people that they “won’t be disappointed when you vote for me.”