Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said Nigerians cannot afford to hand over government to a presidential candidate he described as "a greenhorn".

Atiku made the assertion while addressing stakeholders on the economy at a presidential dialogue organised by the National Economic Summit Group (NESG) in Lagos on Monday.

According to Atiku, Nigeria needs an experienced hand to run its affairs and cannot afford "a greenhorn".

In a veiled reference to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Atiku claimed that the APC flagbearer cannot be trusted with power again.

He said, "As head of the economic management team, while I was Vice President, I was instrumental in designing a private sector revival strategy and advocated for the opening of the economy for private sector investments in several sectors. And we made tremendous progress.

"I'm sure you still remember the good old days of rapid economic growth with stable interest and exchange rates, low inflation, low unemployment rates, and low poverty headcount.

"We paid off nearly all of our foreign debt which was crippling the country.

"It will be dangerous for Nigeria to relinquish their future to a greenhorn or the national leader of the same party that brought us to this very sorry situation."

Atiku will slug it out with the former Lagos State governor and APC's Bola Tinubu; Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP)'s Rabiu Kwankwaso among others.

The presidential election is slated for February 25.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had said about 94 million persons are set to vote in the election, which has been described as a four-horse race, according to analysts.