Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has launched a blistering counterattack on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, accusing him of hypocrisy, historical distortion, and political desperation.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued on his behalf by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku described Tinubu\u2019s recent remarks as a \u201creckless tirade\u201d that exposes \u201ca troubling pattern of hypocrisy and historical amnesia.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Vice President expressed astonishment that a President who has faced persistent questions over his own credentials would attempt to discredit others with well-documented records of public service.<\/p>\n
\u201cAtiku Abubakar\u2019s attention has been drawn to the latest reckless tirade by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu – a performance that exposes not just desperation, but a troubling pattern of hypocrisy and historical amnesia,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
On the contentious issue of privatisation, Atiku\u2019s camp said Tinubu\u2019s criticism collapses under scrutiny, recalling that the President had previously opposed the very reforms he now appears to be implementing.<\/p>\n
According to the statement, Atiku had long advocated the privatisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the sale of refineries to credible private investors\u2014a position Tinubu reportedly resisted at the time.<\/p>\n
However, the statement argued that the current administration is now presiding over a system that has effectively commercialised the national oil company \u201cin opacity\u2014without clear valuation, without transparency, and with lingering questions about who truly benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not reform; it is privatisation without accountability,\u201d the statement declared.<\/p>\n
The response further defended Atiku\u2019s role in Nigeria\u2019s economic reforms, citing several companies as evidence of the success of the privatisation programme he supervised. These include Oando Plc (formerly Unipetrol), Conoil Plc, African Petroleum (now Ardova Plc), Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals, Benue Cement Company, and Transcorp Hilton Abuja, all described as enduring testaments to policies that unlocked value and revived struggling state enterprises.<\/p>\n
The statement then took a direct swipe at the President\u2019s intellectual posture, noting that his comments betray a failure to engage even the most basic documented history of Nigeria\u2019s economic reforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not our fault that the President does not and can not read, because Bola Tinubu has a history of attending a school in Lagos two years before it was founded, upon which he claimed his crooked Chicago State University degree.\u201d The statement said pointedly. \u201cIf he were properly educated he would have acquainted himself with the privatisation records in the presidency or the painstaking account of these reforms as captured by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai in The Accidental Public Servant, where the privatisation programme was clearly documented as a bold and structured effort to dismantle inefficiency and drive private sector-led growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
It added that Tinubu\u2019s remarks could only have been made in ignorance of facts already laid bare in public records and credible accounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot oppose reform when it demands courage and then execute a shadow version of it in power,\u201d the statement added.
\nAtiku\u2019s camp further criticised the tone of Tinubu\u2019s remarks, saying the President\u2019s resort to mockery reflects a deeper leadership problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe President\u2019s attempt to reduce a serious economic legacy to playground ridicule only underscores a deeper problem: a leadership more comfortable with insults than with facts,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
More fundamentally, the President\u2019s comments only draw attention to the grim reality Nigerians live with daily under this administration.<\/p>\n
” Across the country, families are skipping meals, businesses are shutting their doors, and hardworking citizens are watching their incomes evaporate under the weight of relentless inflation and a collapsing purchasing power. The cost of living has become unbearable, insecurity continues to stalk communities, and hope is steadily giving way to despair. What has been marketed as reform has translated into hardship without relief\u2014policies that bite harder each day while offering no clear path to recovery. This is the true state of the nation, and no amount of rhetoric can mask the pain etched into the lives of ordinary Nigerians.”<\/p>\n
It concluded by asserting that Atiku\u2019s record remains \u201cclear, documented, and defensible,\u201d while noting that \u201cpersistent public concerns\u201d about the President\u2019s identity, age, and academic history remain unresolved.<\/p>\n
\u201cA leader who has not fully resolved questions about his own background should exercise restraint before casting aspersions on others,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n
The statement ended with a cautionary note:
\n\u201cNigerians are watching.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has launched a blistering counterattack on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, accusing him of hypocrisy, historical distortion, and political desperation. In a statement issued on his behalf by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku described Tinubu\u2019s recent remarks as a \u201creckless tirade\u201d that exposes \u201ca troubling pattern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":66884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[55,8256,8257,56],"class_list":["post-98623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-politics","tag-atiku","tag-credentials","tag-read","tag-tinubu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}