As the presidential elections draw near, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has urged the Buhari Campaign Organisation and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop the habit of hurling insults and casting aspersions on him and concentrate on an issue-based campaign.
His Media Office also threw posers to the President’s team and the ruling party for which it demanded answers.
“It is rather unfortunate that because they have no record of performance, these institutions would rather run an ad hominem campaign. However, we wish to remind them of their past praise and validation of H E Atiku and ask them what has changed between then and now.
“On December 22, 2014, President Muhammadu Buhari declared that HE Atiku Abubakar is “an inspiration” who has done a “great service”. Today, the Presidency is singing a different tune. How can Nigeria be stable economically and politically if the President cannot be counted to stick to his words?
“On December 21, 2014, the All Progressives Congress issued a statement describing HE Atiku as a “special gift” and “an asset”. Today, the same party is hurling invective on the man they once celebrated as an exemplary citizen. Is this two-facedness the type of example they want to give to Nigerians?
“Moreover, on December 19, 2014, the All Progressives Congress praised HE Atiku as an “agent of change”. Now that Atiku Abubakar is on the brink of effecting the promised change that the APC failed to implement, they have ‘changed’ and now call him all sorts of negative names.
The former Vice President promised to get Nigeria working again by focusing on JOBS, an acronym for Jobs, Opportunity, Being United and Security).
Among the posers put to the Buhari Campaign Organisation are:
· Name one project initiated, started and completed in the last three years by the Buhari administration.
· Name one youth in President Buhari’s cabinet.
· Name one campaign promise President Buhari has kept.
· Name one Southerner heading a National Intelligence Agency under Buhari.
· Name one terrorist arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned by the Buhari administration.
· Name one Buhari government official arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned by the Buhari administration over their many budget padding scandals.
· Name one member of the Buhari administration fingered in corruption that was fired, arrested and currently facing trial.
· Name one former President or Head of State that has not been blamed by President Buhari for the precarious state of the economy he led us into.
· Name one year that Nigeria’s GDP grew faster than her population under Buhari (for 16 years of PDP administrations, Nigeria’s GDP always grew faster than population growth).
· Name the initiatives the Buhari government has put in place to address Nigeria being named the world headquarters for extreme poverty under Buhari.
· Name one initiative the Buhari government has put in place to address Nigeria having the world’s highest number of out of school children (13.2 million according to the United Nations Children Fund).
· Name the date the Ogoni cleanup will begin.
· Name what President Buhari has done with the ₦13 trillion loans he has taken in 3 years (compared to the ₦6 trillion borrowed by the PDP in 16 years).
· Name the real owners of the Ikoyi Apartment billions.
“These are the issues the Nigerian people want to hear about, not insults from a Presidency and a party that have spent three years in office only to preside over Nigeria’s first ever recession in 25 years,” the Atiku Media Office added.
We urge the Buhari administration to remember that it is this disinterest in real governance and focus on trivia that caused Bill Gates to look President Buhari in the eye and tell him that ‘your economic blueprint does not address Nigerians’ needs’.
The Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation runs an issue based campaign where refined language and cerebral arguments founded on facts are used to disseminate the vision of our candidate which is why we call on the Buhari Campaign Organisation to waste no time in taking the #BuhariChallenge in clearing the air on these knotty issues bothering the minds of Nigerians.