David Williams
The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has slammed President Bola Tinubu for blaming the opposition for the country’s economic hardship.
Atiku said the President was trying to evade responsibility for his administration’s policies.
Tinubu had earlier on Saturday blamed his political opponents for hunger and poverty in the country while speaking at the All Progressives Congress presidential campaign flag-off in Kaduna.
“I hear my opponent talking about hunger, poverty. Who created it? They did! They created the hunger, they created the poverty. We are trying to eradicate it,” the President said.
However, Atiku, a former Vice President, said Nigerians were entitled to demand answers from the APC-led government over rising living costs, poverty, insecurity and questions surrounding public expenditure.
In a statement issued on Saturday by the Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said Tinubu could not attribute the country’s hardship to the opposition after about 11 years of APC rule at the federal level.
The statement read in part, “Mr President, blaming the opposition for hunger is either delusion or a staggering case of political amnesia. The APC governed Nigeria for eight years before you took office. You have added another three and a half years.
“Nigerians know who has been in power, and hardship did not begin when the opposition started talking about it. Stop insulting their intelligence and answer for your record,” the statement quoted him as saying.
“The hardship your administration has brought upon Nigerians is real. You cannot deny it by blaming others.
“Your decision to commission the unfinished Abuja to Kaduna Expressway from inside a stadium shows how far removed you are from the daily reality of Nigerians. A road cannot be completed with a speech or a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“Which administration removed the petrol subsidy and watched the naira fall from about ₦471 to ₦1,329 to the dollar?
“You cannot govern for three years, make life harder, and then blame others for describing the hardship. You asked who created the hunger. Nigerians are asking what you have done to end it.
“The 2027 presidential election will be a referendum on your record. Nigerians have felt the cost of your leadership in their homes, markets and communities”.
