Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has faulted President Bola Tinubu’s claim that prosperity is on the horizon and that the quality of life is improving, saying the description does not reflect the realities faced by millions of Nigerians.
Mr Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, said in a statement issued on Friday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, that the president’s remarks showed a growing disconnect between the government and ordinary citizens.
“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. 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 killed 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,” he said.
The former vice-president said although President Tinubu inherited significant challenges, he was elected to address them rather than continue to blame previous administrations.
“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,” Mr Atiku said.
He argued that after more than three years in office, the Tinubu administration could no longer rely on the failures of its predecessors to explain the country’s economic and security challenges.
“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.
“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,” he said.
Mr Atiku alleged that the current hardship was driven by policies and governance failures under the Tinubu administration, accusing the government of prioritising opacity over transparency and rewarding a privileged circle of political allies while millions of Nigerians faced worsening economic conditions and insecurity.
He also criticised the president’s comments on Nigeria’s population, arguing that countries such as China transformed their large populations into economic assets through sustained investments in manufacturing, infrastructure, education, technology and export-driven industrialisation.
“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,” he said.
Mr Atiku said an administration led by him would invest in manufacturing, infrastructure, education, skills acquisition, agriculture and export-oriented industries to harness the country’s productive potential.
“Nigeria’s youthful population is not a burden; it is our greatest strategic advantage. Our people are not the problem. President Tinubu’s failed leadership is,” he said.
The former vice-president also described as insensitive any suggestion that Nigerians should accept current hardship because hunger and economic difficulties existed before the president was born.
“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.
Mr Atiku said hope could not be created through speeches but must be earned through policies and leadership that improve the living conditions of citizens.
“Hope cannot be preached to a hungry stomach. It cannot be legislated into existence. 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,” he said.
