By Ruth Oketunde
The presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has met with some youths in Abuja, ahead of his planned unveiling of a virtual interactive platform to interface with Nigerians.
The virtual interactive platform is an innovation, aimed at carrying the populace along in governance, if he becomes president, according to the Team Lead of the project, Ms. Debie Mangut.
Mangut spoke on the planned unveiling of the facility in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday.
How the platform, called “Atiku Listens’’ will work has since been demonstrated by the presidential hopeful in a meeting with 15 youths drawn from different walks of life, Mangut stated.
Hosted on www.atikulistns.ng, the platform is a unique communications solutions provider, according to the project team.
The portal is also described as the veritable solution to the endemic disconnect and alienation of youths and women by public officers in Nigeria.
Mangut explained that the platform would be deployed by the former vice-president, to execute the key policies of his administration, if he eventually emerges president.
“The virtual interactive communications solutions platform is designed to address the communication gap between public policy makers and members of the public, particularly youths,’’ Mangut said.
According to her, `Atiku Listens’, opens up political participation among members of the public, particularly youths, the girl-child, women and the down-trodden.
“ The platform works by offering young people unfettered access to public officials,’’ Mangut added.
“This will mark a turning-point between Atiku and members of the public on one-on-one conversation with Nigerians in solving specific community problems when he becomes president.’’
Mangut said that it had always been the desire of the PDP flag-bearer to raise the political participation level of citizens in governance, a lack of which she said, had been a major draw-back in governance and development in Africa.
She said that the portal had offered a unique interface between youths and the PDP presidential candidate as “he visibly demonstrates his class in the current presidential race’’.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Atiku is one of the leading candidates in a presidential race, fielding some 18 candidates, getting set to slug it out on Feb. 25.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation returned to popular democracy in 1999 after years of a ruinous military dictatorship.(NAN)
