Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar says he is not envious of President Bola Tinubu, whom he describes as “inflicting pains on Nigerians.”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential contender for 2023 was replying to the presidency’s recent accusation that he is envious of Tinubu.
On Sunday, Bayo Onanuga, the president’s special assistant on communications and strategy, chastised Abubakar for his continued criticism of Tinubu’s economic policies.
Abubakar has regularly questioned Tinubu’s economic reforms, referring to them as a “cocktail of policies” with no clear objectives for achieving outcomes.
The former vice president had outlined policies he would have implemented if elected Nigerian president.
However, in a statement made on Monday by Phrank Shaibu, his special assistant for public information, Abubakar stated that Tinubu pursues policies before considering the potential ramifications.
The statement reads:
“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 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”.
