(Bloomberg) -- Nigeria’s main opposition presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, said he’ll sell the state oil company, which he called a “mafia,” and liberalize the economy if he wins office next month, using private investors to drive growth and create jobs.

“I will liberalize the economy to create jobs,” Abubakar, a former vice president, told reporters Wednesday in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. “I will reduce the size of the federal government completely and hand over the responsibilities to the component units.”

President Muhammadu Buhari, who won the election in Africa’s top oil producer in 2015 on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, is seeking a second term in February.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tope Alake in Lagos at talake@bloomberg.net;Emele Onu in Lagos at eonu1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Dulue Mbachu

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