Atiku, PDP Appoint 35-Year-Old As Campaign Finance Director

In one of his first major indication towards Youth Inclusion, Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has appointed 35 year old PDP National Financial Secretary, Hon. Abdullahi Hussaini MaiBasira as the Director of Finance for the 2019 Atiku – Obi Presidential Campaign Council. The appointment of a youth into this vital position is unprecedented in the history of PDP’s and possibly national campaign councils in Nigeria. MaiBasira is currently the youngest member of the PDP National Working Committee and is the immediate past National Youth Leader of the Party.

By this appointment, MaiBasira becomes the youngest person ever to serve in two successive Presidential Campaign Councils as Director. In 2015, then President Goodluck Jonathan appointed MaiBasira his Director for Youth and Student Mobilization. MaiBasira possesses two Masters degrees in Agricultural Economics and the other, in Strategic and Security Studies from the Nigeria Defense Academy, Kaduna. An old boy of Kings College, Lagos, MaiBasira has been tutored in Oxford, Harvard, Westminster as well as the Lagos Business School.

It could be recalled that Atiku had promised an accelerated youth and women inclusion agenda in his government when elected . This latest action is seen as keeping with that commitment as evidenced by the appointment of other vibrant young minds like Hon Ude Okoye; Current National Youth leader of the party to serve as Director of youth mobilization for the campaign and Segun Showunmi who served as Atikus Spokesman.

Atiku has consistently proven his passion and desire to involve young people in nation building. Atiku is also believed to be the largest single private employer of Labour in Nigeria after the federal government. Nigeria has so far lost over 9 million jobs and unemployment rate is at an all time high of 23% according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). As Vice President to President Olusegun Obsasanjo; Atiku was credited with bringing in some of the youngest and most vibrant brains at the time who made significant contributions to national development from 1999- 2007. Nigerian Youths have decried the APC Buhari administration for not having a single young person in his current Cabinet or at any sensitive position of responsibility thus not living up to their 2015 campaign promises.