Atiku fires back: Nigeria will be broke before 2011 elections, says Atiku

FORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday fired back at President Goodluck Jonathan, asking him to take bold and accept responsibility as the leader of the country, just as he said that accusing him was a show of shame.
He also said that if it was not a combination of him, former Military President Ibrahim Babangida and ex_National Security Adviser that were instrumental to the removal of ex_President Olusegun Obasanjo  from prison before he became the president of Nigeria, he would not be laughing now.
He equally said that with Jonathan as president of Nigeria, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had failed Nigeria and Nigerians. Atiku Abubakar, who noted that President Goodluck Jonathan lied on the nation’s debt profile, boasted that with the manner the nation’s economy was going with borrowing without a corresponding positive impact on such borrowings, the nation’s debt profile would hit well over $48.3 billion before the 2011 general election.
He added that the president was “being economical with the truth as it pertains to the nation’s debt profile”.
Abubakar, a presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, who stressed the need for President Jonathan to be advised on the present dwindling economy, said he should not be there as president of Nigeria if he had no economic blueprint for the country.
Speaking through the Deputy Director_General (Operations) of his Campaign Organisation, Alhaji Bashir Yusuf, at a press conference yesterday, Atiku, who noted that an analysis done by the campaign organization from statistics sourced from government agencies, have indicated that the nation’s debt was rising by the day.
“An all time high of over $20 billion in 2007, to an all time low of about $1billion does not show sound economic management,” he said.
When asked on the Campaign Organization’s reaction to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on his laughter following the adoption of Atiku as the Consensus Candidate, Yusuf said  ‘’I read in the papers today [yesterday] about  Obasanjo’s comment.  I quickly called Atiku Abubakar.”
Source:http://www.vanguardngr.com