Atiku: I can’t be envious of Tinubu… he inflicts pain on Nigerians

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar says he is not envious of President Bola Tinubu, whom he noted is “inflicting pains on Nigerians”.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential election was reacting to a recent comment by the presidency which accused him of being envious of Tinubu.

On Sunday, Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy to the president, reprimanded Abubakar for his persistent criticism of Tinubu’s economic policies.

Abubakar has consistently criticised Tinubu’s economic reforms, describing them as a “cocktail of policies” with no concrete plans to achieve results.

The former vice-president had listed reforms that he would have implemented if he had been elected Nigerian president.

However, in a statement issued on Monday by Phrank Shaibu, his special assistant on public communication, Abubakar said Tinubu implements policies before analysing the potential consequences.

“On July 8, 2024, Tinubu announced that import duty on essential goods like food would be lifted for 150 days. But over 120 days later, the policy is yet to take off while Nigerians continue to die daily due to increasing costs, including food inflation, which now exceeds 40 percent, the highest in decades,” the statement reads.

“The brazen disobedience to a government policy by Tinubu’s appointees and the failure of the finance ministry to issue a gazette after over four months reflect the fatuousness, inanity, and incompetence that characterise the Tinubu administration.

“Sadly, rather than focus on governance, they are preoccupied with verbally assaulting their opponents — Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi — while using compromised courts to foster crisis in the opposition. What a shame!

“Tinubu was obviously unprepared for office. He acts first and thinks of the consequences afterwards. This was why he announced an abrupt removal of the petrol subsidy without any cushions.

“After seeing the effect, he then hurriedly decided to push a CNG initiative, which even he and his ministers have not embraced, hence their refusal to use it. The CNG initiative has so far failed to fully kick off because of a lack of gas infrastructure in most states.

“It is ludicrous to claim that Atiku is jealous of Tinubu. Hell no, Atiku cannot be jealous of Tinubu inflicting pain on Nigerians.

“Wickedness is an exclusive preserve of Tinubu, and no compassionate leader who truly cares about the wellbeing of Nigerians should be jealous of what is an exclusive preserve of T-Pain.”

Abubakar said the naira is “currently the worst performing currency in Africa and Nigeria is now the fifth largest economy on the continent, falling from first when the failure called APC took over in 2015”.