On Friday, former vice president Atiku Abubakar criticized President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms and charged him with misrepresenting Nigeria’s reform past.
The leader of the African Democratic Congress claimed in a statement released by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, that Nigerians’ everyday hardships are a direct result of Tinubu’s policies.
The President’s recent comments, according to Atiku, are a “reckless tirade” that reveals “a troubling pattern of hypocrisy and historical amnesia.”
“Families are skipping meals, businesses are closing their doors, and hardworking citizens are watching their incomes evaporate under the weight of relentless inflation and a collapsing purchasing power,” he stated.
“Hope is gradually giving way to despair, the expense of life has grown intolerable, and communities are still plagued by insecurity. What has been touted as change has instead resulted in suffering without relief—policies that make life more difficult every day without providing a clear way out.
No amount of rhetoric can mask the pain etched into the lives of ordinary Nigerians; this is the true state of the nation.”
Atiku also disregarded Tinubu’s stance on privatization, claiming that his objections are unfounded.
Atiku used a number of businesses, including Oando Plc (formerly Unipetrol), Conoil Plc, African Petroleum (now Ardova Plc), Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals, Benue Cement Company, and Transcorp Hilton Abuja, as proof of the success of the privatization program he oversaw while defending his record in office. He claimed that these businesses were the result of policies that unlocked value and revitalized faltering state businesses.
The statement accused the President of not engaging with documented narratives and further criticized his understanding of Nigeria’s history of economic transformation.
The President’s inability to read is not our fault because Bola Tinubu attended a school in Lagos two years prior to its founding, which is how he obtained his fraudulent Chicago State University degree.
“If he had received a proper education, he would have familiarized himself with the privatization records in the presidency or the meticulous account of these reforms as captured by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai in The Accidental Public Servant, where the privatization program was clearly documented as a bold and structured effort to dismantle inefficiency and drive growth led by the private sector.”
According to the former vice president, it is ironic that a president who is always under public criticism for his own qualifications would want to denigrate people who have a solid track record of public service.
According to the statement, Tinubu’s comments could only have been made in ignorance of information that was already in the public domain.
The message went on, “You cannot oppose reform when it requires courage and then execute a shadow version of it in power.”
Atiku also criticized the President’s tone, claiming that his use of ridicule reveals a more serious leadership issue.
According to the statement, “the President’s attempt to reduce a serious economic legacy to playground ridicule only underscores a deeper problem: a leadership more comfortable with insults than with facts.”
