A group backing President Bola Tinubu has dismissed as laughable a claim by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar that he is “competing with thieves,” saying the ADC presidential candidate’s own record in government makes the accusation ring hollow.
The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG), in a statement signed by Chairman, Emeka Nwankpa, and Secretary, Dapo Okubanjo, said Atiku appeared to be counting on Nigerians forgetting his years in office.
“It is indeed utterly laughable that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar could unabashedly call anyone in government names after what Nigerians know about his time in office as former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s deputy,” the statement read.
The group suggested the remark, made in a video Atiku shared on social media, reflected the pressure of a possible last shot at the presidency after five earlier failed attempts. It argued that the strategy of attacking sitting presidents — which it said Atiku also used against the late Muhammadu Buhari — had not worked in 2019 and would not work in 2027.
TMSG went further, arguing that the language Atiku used to describe the current administration more accurately describes his own record, pointing to Obasanjo’s own past criticism of his former deputy in the book “My Watch,” in which the ex-president accused Atiku of a pattern of corruption, disloyalty, dishonesty, poor judgment, reliance on marabouts, lack of transparency, and a willingness to sacrifice integrity for self-interest. The group noted that Atiku neither sued Obasanjo for defamation over those remarks nor moved to clear his name, beyond stating he had never been convicted of corruption.
The statement also revisited older corruption allegations against Atiku. It cited a 2010 US Congressional investigation into foreign corruption that devoted more than 80 pages to Atiku, alleging his then-wife Jennifer Douglas-Abubakar moved over $40 million in suspect or offshore funds into more than 30 US bank accounts between 2000 and 2008 through shell companies in Panama and the British Virgin Islands.
It also referenced a 2008 US Securities and Exchange Commission allegation that Jennifer received more than $2 million in bribes from Siemens in 2001 and 2002 to help the company secure government contracts — a claim she denied, though Siemens itself pleaded guilty to related criminal charges.
TMSG additionally pointed to a Nigerian Senate committee report alleging Atiku diverted $145 million from the Petroleum Technology Development Fund and criticized his oversight of privatisation exercises as chairman of the National Council on Privatisation, which it said saw public assets sold off cheaply and left many former workers in hardship.
“We are convinced that the former Vice President has so much baggage bordering on corruption allegations to be sauntering around, accusing others of things he is liable for,” the group said.
