40% of my cabinet will be youth and women – Atiku

Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has promised to make youth and women 40 percent of his cabinet if he emerges victorious at next year’s poll.

Atiku said this at a town hall meeting in Lagos state on Monday where he also promised to appoint a minister of youth who would be less than 30 years.

“Forty percent of my government will be youth. It is a promise. I will not break it. My minister of youth will be less than 30 years,” he said.

“If you are less than 30 years, you can bring your CV. This is simply because the youth are the future of this country. We will build a good future for the country.

“We are here because of your future. I have four children but only one is working for the government while the rest are working for me in my various companies.”

He also said he intends to create jobs for the youth by lowering tax rates and industrial tariffs for the private sector.

“In most industrialised countries, it is the private sector that creates jobs. How do they do that? They lower the tax rate,” he said.

“If you issue lower tax rates to most companies, they will create jobs. These are the types of incentives you offer the private sector so that they will be able to create jobs.

“Lower industrial tariff rates, they will create the jobs for your country and the youth will be liberated. That is why I got a first class VP.

“I know about creating jobs. Our president said the economy has ‘pafuka’. Do you know that in this government, there is no economist? They don’t even know how to manage the economy. If the economy is good, we will all prosper. If the economy is bad, we all perish.”