The former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has rejected President Bola Tinubu’s claim that opposition leaders created Nigeria’s hunger and poverty, calling the charge an attempt to escape responsibility for the hardship Nigerians now face.
Atiku said a President cannot light the fire of hardship with his own policies and then blame the neighbours for the smoke.
In a statement issued by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, the former vice president said Tinubu’s remarks at his Kaduna campaign flag off showed either delusion or political amnesia.
“The APC governed Nigeria for eight years before you took office. You have added another three and a half years,” Atiku said. “Nigerians know who has been in power, and hardship did not begin when the opposition started talking about it.”
He told the President to stop insulting the intelligence of Nigerians and to answer for his record. “The hardship your administration has brought upon Nigerians is real,” he said. “You cannot deny it by blaming others.”
Atiku also faulted Tinubu for commissioning a section of the Abuja to Kaduna expressway from inside a stadium. He said the move showed how far the President is from the daily reality of Nigerians, and that a road cannot be completed with a speech or a ribbon cutting.
The former vice president then posed a series of questions to the administration: Which administration removed the petrol subsidy and watched the naira fall from about ₦471 to ₦1,329 to the dollar? Which administration presided over a rise in poverty that led the World Bank to estimate that 63 per cent of Nigerians will be below the national poverty line in 2026? Which administration extended the 2024 budget into 2025 while also running a separate 2025 budget? Which administration recorded ₦7.13 trillion under “energy security” in 2024, and faces questions over ₦11.2 trillion in NNPC pipeline related spending? Atiku said Nigerians deserve to know who received these sums and what was delivered.
Which administration must explain the $12.4 billion gap flagged in Nigeria’s external accounts for the first half of 2026? Which administration paid $22.5 million in “other charges” on the Abu Dhabi financing facility? Which administration is responsible for the killings, kidnappings and displacement that continue to terrorise communities?
“These are the questions Nigerians are asking while your government blames the opposition,” Atiku said.
He said a government cannot rule for three years, make life harder, and then blame others for describing the hardship. “You asked who created the hunger,” he said. “Nigerians are asking what you have done to end it.”
Atiku added that the people will judge the government by the lives they are living, not by excuses offered at campaign rallies.
He said the 2027 presidential election will be a referendum on Tinubu’s record, and that Nigerians have felt the cost of his leadership in their homes, markets and communities.
“Their verdict is already clear: they have rejected your administration,” he said.
