I’m not jealous of Tinubu, Atiku replies Presidency
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in last year’s general election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed a statement by the Presidency that envy was behind his endless criticism of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
In a statement yesterday in Abuja by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Mr. Phrank Shuaibu, the former Vice President, who lost to President Tinubu by a wide margin, argued that there was justification for his action.
He said: “On July 8, 2024, Tinubu announced that import duty on essential goods, like food, would be lifted for 150 days, but over 120 days later, the policy is yet to take off, while Nigerians continue to die daily due to increasing costs, including food inflation, which now exceeds 40 per cent, the highest in decades.
“The brazen disobedience to a government policy by Tinubu’s appointees and the failure of the Finance Ministry to issue a gazette after over four months reflects the fatuousness, inanity and the incompetence that characterises the Tinubu administration.
“Sadly, rather than focus on governance, they are preoccupied with verbally assaulting their opponents – Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi – while using compromised courts to foster crisis in the opposition. What a shame!”
Atiku also argued that President Tinubu’s performance indicated that he came into office unprepared.
“Tinubu was obviously unprepared for office; he acts first and thinks of the consequences afterwards, and this was why he announced an abrupt removal of petrol subsidy without any cushions; after seeing the effect, he then hurriedly decided to push a CNG initiative, which even he and his ministers have not embraced, hence their refusal to use it.
“The CNG initiative has so far failed to fully kick off because of a lack of gas infrastructure in most states; the result is that transport costs continue to soar along with prices of food.
“In his mid-term expenditure framework, he projected the exchange rate at N700/$1 in 2024 and N650/$1 by 2025.”
The former Vice President raised concern against the Tinubu presidency over the emergence of a new terror organisation, called Lakurawa, in the Northwest as well as the incessant collapse of the national electricity grid in the North due to the activities of bandits.
