If elected in the general election of 2023, Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, has pledged to fight against poverty and insecurity.

The former vice president spoke on Monday at the beginning of the PDP’s presidential campaign in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom.

Three years after joining the APC, Abubakar quit it in 2017. He claimed that the PDP “lifted Nigeria from the bottom to the top” and made it the largest economy in Africa.

He asserted that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had failed to uphold its promises made during the election year to better the country after ousting the PDP.

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“Nigeria said they wanted change, and they voted for change in 2015. What have we seen? What we have seen is poverty, insecurity, lack of jobs and disunity,” he said.

“Our children are no longer going to school. Is that what we want to continue with?

“Today, we have flagged off our campaign to rescue Nigeria from hunger, and poverty and to bring back the unity that we require in this country. Therefore, I want to appeal to all Nigerians by standing today in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, to ask them to vote for PDP.

“If you vote for PDP, it will be a return to prosperity; it will be a return to unity; there will be no more hunger and there will be security.”

Speaking on the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Abubakar said: “I swear, if you vote for PDP, you’ll all go back to schools; you will get jobs; there will be security; and there will be unity.”