Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar says the presidency’s latest attack on him shows that the administration of President Bola Tinubu has chosen “diversion over disclosure and insults over accountability”.
In a statement issued on Thursday by Phrank Shaibu, his
senior special assistant on public communication, Atiku said the presidency had
failed to address the substantive issues surrounding Tinubu’s US civil
forfeiture case, opting instead for personal attacks.
“When governments abandon facts for insults and substitute
evidence with abuse, they unwittingly admit that they have run out of
convincing answers,” the statement reads.
“Nigerians expected clarification. What they received
instead was a barrage of name-calling and political invective.”
Atiku said asking questions based on publicly available
records should not be construed as an attack on Nigeria’s sovereignty.
“No one has reported Nigeria to anyone. Nigeria is not on
trial. The issue concerns questions arising from publicly available records
relating to the occupant of the nation’s highest office,” he said.
“Those records were not created by the opposition, the ADC,
or any political actor. Attempting to silence legitimate public inquiry by
wrapping oneself in the national flag does not answer the questions before the
country.”
The former vice-president accused the presidency of reviving
old allegations against him instead of responding directly to the issues
raised.
“Nigerians can distinguish between political mudslinging and
factual responses. Personal attacks do not erase public records, nor do they
substitute for transparency,” he stated.
“The Presidency should resist the temptation to personalise
issues that require clear and factual explanations.”
Atiku also described as ironic the administration’s attempt
to celebrate international endorsements while dismissing international
scrutiny.
“You cannot celebrate international validation when it is
convenient and condemn international scrutiny when it becomes uncomfortable.
Accountability is not foreign interference; it is a democratic obligation,” he
said.
He added that electoral victory does not extinguish the
public’s right to demand accountability.
“Elections confer political authority, but they do not
extinguish the public’s right to ask questions. A democratic mandate is not a
substitute for transparency, nor does it exempt any public official from the
obligation to account to the people,” he stated.
Atiku urged the presidency to provide factual responses
instead of engaging in inflammatory rhetoric.
“If the government believes that the public record has been
misunderstood or misrepresented, the appropriate response is to present the
facts. Abuse cannot replace evidence, and propaganda cannot replace truth,” he
said.
He insisted that Nigerians deserve answers over the
long-standing US forfeiture case involving Tinubu.
“The Nigerian people deserve answers, not insults. They want
to know if their President forfeited money to the Government of the United
States of America on account of drug-related offences,” he added.
“They deserve transparency, not diversion. Until those
questions are addressed with facts, no amount of outrage or personal attacks
will silence legitimate public inquiry.”
BACKGROUND
The statement came hours after the presidency accused Atiku
of attempting to revive Tinubu’s 1993 US civil forfeiture case through foreign
lobbyists.
Bayo Onanuga, presidential spokesperson, said Atiku’s
decision to hire a Washington-based lobbying firm to circulate US Department of
Justice (DOJ) records relating to the case was “self-defeating” and amounted to
reporting Nigeria’s president to a foreign government.
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