By Sabiu Abdullahi
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has urged President Bola Tinubu to stop attributing Nigeria’s current challenges to previous administrations. He said Nigerians now expect practical solutions after more than 3 years of the Tinubu administration.
Atiku made the remarks in a statement issued on Friday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu. The former vice-president, who is also the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, criticised Tinubu’s recent comments that prosperity is approaching and that the quality of life is improving across the country.
According to Atiku, those claims do not reflect the realities many Nigerians face.
“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 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.”
Atiku argued that although every government inherits challenges, leaders are elected to solve them rather than explain how they originated.
“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.
He also said the current administration should no longer shift 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.
The former vice-president further criticised the administration’s economic record.
“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 rejected Tinubu’s suggestion that Nigeria’s population contributes to the country’s difficulties. He pointed to China as an example of how a large population can become an economic advantage.
“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 under his leadership would focus on investments in manufacturing, infrastructure, education, agriculture, and export-driven industries to unlock the potential of Nigeria’s youthful population.
Atiku also described it as insensitive for the president to suggest that Nigerians should accept present hardship because hunger existed before his birth.
“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 maintained that hope must be supported by visible improvements in the welfare 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.”
Atiku concluded by urging Tinubu to reconnect with the daily 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.”
