State Of The Nation: Presidency Replies Atiku Abubakar

The Presidency says statements credited to Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s advocacy for a gradualist approach is an indication that he is not in tune with the enormity of problems inherited by President Bola Tinubu.

Special adviser to the president on information and strategy Bayo Onanuga in a statement said, President Tinubu met a country facing several grave challenges.

Fuel subsidies were siphoning away enormous resources the nation could ill afford, and there was criminal arbitrage in the forex market.

Onanuga in the statement noted that Atiku’s ideas, which lacked details, were rejected by Nigerians in the 2023 poll.

The presidential aide said if he had won the election, the presidency believes the People’s Democratic Party presidential flag bearer would have plunged Nigeria into a worse situation or run a regime of cronyism.

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“Abubakar lost the election partly because he vowed to sell the NNPC and other assets to his friends. Nigerians have not forgotten this, nor would they be comforted by Atiku’s antecedents when he ran the economy in the first term of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government between 1999 and 2003.”

Onanuga accused the former vice president of supervising a questionable privatization program.As “He and his boss demonstrated a lack of faith in our educational system, and both went to establish their universities while they allowed ours to flounder.”

Adding that Talk is cheap. As It is easy to pontificate and deride a rival’s programs even when there are irrefutable indices that the economic reforms yield positives despite the temporary difficulties.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had in a statement advocated for gradual reforms but the special adviser stated that the Tinubu’s administration has prioritised social safety nets and targeted support for those affected by recent economic transitions.

(Editor: Ebuwa Omo-Osagie)