ATIKU HAS WON MY HEART AND IF YOU READ THIS TILL THE END, HE WILL WIN YOURS ALSO. My respect for Waziri of Adamawa got a new dimension yesterday. I learnt that he was the 2nd highest job creator after the state government in Adamawa. That's what most of us also heard - but none took his time to examine this closely and critically.

I took my time to Google the poorest states in Nigeria, and from the rear are Sokoto and Kastina. It's clear that the singular reason Adamawa was not the poorest state in Nigeria is simply because apart from State Government, there are other job opportunities - no matter the quality.

What most of us did not put into consideration is the burden on Atiku's back. Don't we know that every kobo Atiku invested to create jobs in Adamawa would have fared better if invested in Lagos? Have we forgotten the golden rule of Economics: What are you producing and for whom?

On this rule, to suceed in Business, you should find a location where people have the purchasing power. If not, you will fail. Adamawa is not that location, yet, someone stick his neck.

Atiku is not a fool by siting his business among the poorest. He is bleeding for his people by applying the dumbest business model to sustain his state and his people. And it's paying off big time.

I was really touched when an Adamawa indigene, Maliki (twitter: @AAAhammanyero) twitted this:

**** Kadaria said Adamawa is one of the poorest state in Nigeria, we are ranked 26 for 20 years. But in the whole Northern Nigeria, we are the only state that I can beat my chest with pride that we don't send our kids to other states in the name of Almajiri. ****

Atiku, by providing additional jobs, is preserving the future of the kids in Adamawa. They are still poor today but are mentally more advanced than their entire neighbors that still practice the primitive Almajiri system. In the coming decades, we will find them in industries and government while other northern states will be learning how to break Almajiri system.

Why did Atiku build one of the biggest University in Africa inside Adamawa? Do you know what is called tourism? Do you know that Atiku's university, because of its level, brings only the children of billionaires all around the globe into Adamawa? And they will live inside the state for years studying... I am from Anambra, one of the states with richest individuals, nothing at all brings the children of the foreign billionaires into my state. Nothing keeps them for years in Agu Awka.... Nothing.

Northern Nigeria is one of the most dangerous according to UN. Most people will never permit their wards to live in that region. Atiku could have double his gain if his school was built in Lagos. But he wanted it in his state. He wants the world to know that Adamawa exists.

No one is thanking Atiku for playing the role of the life jacket for his state. No one is considering what will become of this state if there's no Atiku.

Whatever you think of Atiku, just know that he goes through hell to keep his people safe. I see a man that thinks more of the people than how big he can grow.

Ozii Baba Anieto
Ajambele

surely Atiku is the man