International media organisations have queried the emergence of the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar over alleged questionable source of his wealth.
This development occurred in London during a three day engagements of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, with major media networks and think tanks.
Giving a wrap up of the engagements on Saturday in London, the minister said the media houses he visited raised questions as to why Atiku could emerged as presidential candidate, considering the anti corruption stance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the minister, engaged with media organisations including Reuters, Aljazeera, the Economists, AP, New African, African Business and African Review Magazines.
The minister said: “One curious issue that kept occurring was that anytime I spoke about how we have waged war against corruption, the journalists kept asking me a question.
“They asked me: How can you claim to have succeeded in waging war against corruption, when one of the major contestants in the 2019 general elections is actually a man with stupendous wealth but cannot explain the source of his wealth?.
“That baffled me a lot, because it mean that we are still being perceived as a country where corruption thrives.
“It was difficult for me to explain to them that yes, we are fighting corruption but these are the same people who have put this country where we are today and who are also trying to come back to power.
The minister assured the media organisations that “this will however define the task of choice for Nigerians.
“The choice for Nigerians today is either they go back to the corrupt past where our commonwealth was shared by a few elites or move forward and continue with this new trajectory where the national resources are used for the benefit of all Nigerians.
“I explained to them that the 2019 elections have been defined, and the choice have been made easy.
“We are sure that Nigerians will choose rightly”.
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