Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has asked President Bola Tinubu to stop blaming past administrations for Nigeria’s challenges.
In a statement issued on Friday by Phrank Shaibu, his senior
special assistant on public communication, Atiku, who is also the presidential
candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said after more than three
years in office, Nigerians expect solutions, not excuses, from the president.
He criticised Tinubu’s recent claim that “prosperity is on
the horizon” and that the quality of life is improving, describing the remarks
as evidence of a disconnect between the government and the realities facing
Nigerians.
“Mr. President says prosperity is on the horizon. Nigerians
are asking: whose horizon? Certainly not that of the market woman whose capital
has been wiped out by inflation,” the statement reads.
“Not that of the civil servant whose salary now expires
before the month begins. Not that of the manufacturer struggling under crushing
energy costs. Not that of the unemployed graduate who sees no future.
“Certainly not that of farming communities forced off their
ancestral lands by terrorists and bandits, families mourning loved ones
slaughtered in senseless attacks, or countless Nigerians who now live in daily
fear of kidnappers who have turned human lives into commodities.
“And certainly not that of millions of households that have
quietly reduced the number of meals they eat each day simply to survive.”
The former vice-president said while Tinubu inherited
challenges, he was elected to address them rather than continue to explain
their origins.
“The constitution did not swear President Tinubu into office
to explain history. It swore him into office to change it. Every administration
inherits problems. Great leaders are remembered for solving them, not for
endlessly rehearsing them,” he stated.
Atiku said the Tinubu administration could no longer govern
by shifting responsibility to its predecessors.
“The Nigerian people are not interested in who created the
problem. They want to know who will solve it. A government that still blames
its predecessors after years in office is, by its own conduct, admitting that
it has run out of ideas,” he said.
“President Tinubu may find comfort in blaming those before
him, but history will remember his administration as the one under which
Nigerians endured unprecedented hardship, institutionalised fiscal
recklessness, and one of the greatest appropriation scandals in the annals of
our nation.
“The suffering of Nigerians today is driven not by the past,
but by an administration that has elevated opacity over transparency, rewarded
a privileged circle of cronies, and condemned millions to deepening economic
pain, insecurity, and despair.”
Atiku also faulted the president for attributing some of
Nigeria’s difficulties to its population, arguing that countries such as China
had turned their large populations into economic assets through strategic
investments.
“It is even more astonishing that a President who constantly
invokes China now blames Nigeria’s population for the country’s difficulties,”
he said.
“China did not become an economic superpower by complaining
about the size of its population. It became prosperous because visionary
leadership transformed that population into its greatest economic asset through
sustained investment in manufacturing, infrastructure, education, technology,
and export-led industrialisation.
“Great leaders convert challenges into opportunities. They
do not convert opportunities into excuses.”
He said an administration led by him would prioritise
investment in manufacturing, infrastructure, education, agriculture and
export-driven industries to harness Nigeria’s youthful population.
The former vice-president also described it as insensitive
for Tinubu to suggest that because hunger existed before he was born, Nigerians
should accept the current economic hardship.
“Nobody ‘elected’ Tinubu to eliminate the hunger of 1940.
Nigerians ‘elected’ him to confront the hunger of today. The fact that previous
generations endured hardship is not a licence to deepen the suffering of the
present generation,” he said.
He added that hope must be backed by tangible improvements
in the lives of citizens.
“Hope cannot be preached to a hungry stomach. It cannot be
legislated into existence,” he stated.
“It cannot substitute for affordable food, stable
electricity, productive jobs, quality education, accessible healthcare, or
security for families to sleep with both eyes closed. Government inspires hope
through performance, not rhetoric.”
Atiku urged the president to reconnect with the realities
confronting ordinary Nigerians.
“If the President truly believes that the quality of life is
improving, then one must respectfully remind him that the Nigeria he is talking
about exists only in his head,” he said.
“It is certainly not the Nigeria where families are choosing
between food and medicine, where communities are fleeing armed violence, where
kidnappers dictate the rhythm of daily life, and where hope is becoming more
expensive than bread.”
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