Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said the latest statement by the Presidency attacking his person is further proof that the President Bola Tinubu administration has allegedly chosen insults over accountability.
Atiku, who is also the African Democratic Congress (ADC) 2027 presidential candidate, said it was telling that the Presidency devoted several paragraphs to personal attacks without addressing the fundamental issues that continue to generate legitimate public interest.
The former Vice President, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Thursday night, accused the Presidency of choosing to revive old political allegations against him instead of responding directly to the issues it was confronted with.
Atiku has, in recent times, been taking the Tinubu administration to task over alleged questionable allocations in the 2026 Appropriation Act and calling for the President to apologise and resign over the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) scandal.
However, the Presidency, in a statement by Presidential Spokesman Bayo Onanuga, accused the former Vice President of resorting to media theatrics and lobbying in Washington rather than coming up with alternative policies.
Nonetheless, the ADC presidential candidate noted: “When governments abandon facts for insults and substitute evidence with abuse, they unwittingly admit that they have run out of convincing answers. Nigerians expected clarification. What they received instead was a barrage of name-calling and political invective.”
According to him, raising questions about matters contained in public records should never be misconstrued as an attack on Nigeria’s sovereignty.
“No one has reported Nigeria to anyone. Nigeria is not on trial. The issue concerns questions arising from publicly available records relating to the occupant of the nation’s highest office. Those records were not created by the opposition, the ADC, or any political actor. Attempting to silence legitimate public inquiry by wrapping oneself in the national flag does not answer the questions before the country.”
“Nigerians can distinguish between political mudslinging and factual responses. Personal attacks do not erase public records, nor do they substitute for transparency. The Presidency should resist the temptation to personalise issues that require clear and factual explanations.”
He added: “You cannot celebrate international validation when it is convenient and condemn international scrutiny when it becomes uncomfortable. Accountability is not foreign interference; it is a democratic obligation.
“Elections confer political authority, but they do not extinguish the public’s right to ask questions. A democratic mandate is not a substitute for transparency, nor does it exempt any public official from the obligation to account to the people.”
Atiku urged the Presidency to abandon its combative posture and provide Nigerians with clear, factual responses instead of inflammatory rhetoric, stating that “if the government believes that the public record has been misunderstood or misrepresented, the appropriate response is to present the facts. Abuse cannot replace evidence, and propaganda cannot replace truth.
“The Nigerian people deserve answers, not insults. They want to know if their President forfeited money to the Government of the United States of America on account of drug-related offences. They deserve transparency, not diversion. Until those questions are addressed with facts, no amount of outrage or personal attacks will silence legitimate public inquiry.”
