Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has accused the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of ignoring the worsening hardship and insecurity confronting Nigerians while attempting to justify the country’s rising debt profile.
Key Highlights:
Atiku, in a statement issued on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the Presidency was “dangerously disconnected” from the suffering of ordinary citizens.
The former vice president was reacting to recent comments from the Presidency defending Nigeria’s borrowing level by comparing it with those of other African countries.
According to Atiku, the Tinubu administration should focus less on “statistical gymnastics” and more on tackling inflation, hunger, insecurity, and the high cost of living.
He argued that borrowing should only be justified when tied to productive investments capable of improving infrastructure, security, agriculture, and economic growth.
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“It is both astonishing and insulting that at a time when millions of Nigerians can barely afford one meal a day, when parents are withdrawing children from school because of crushing hardship, when businesses are collapsing under unbearable electricity tariffs and inflation, and when entire communities are being overrun by terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers, the Presidency is celebrating debt figures as though indebtedness itself were an economic achievement,” the statement read.
Atiku further said insecurity across parts of the country had crippled farming activities and worsened food shortages, noting that many Nigerians now fear travelling by road because of kidnappings and attacks.
“In many parts of Nigeria today, travelling by road has become a gamble with death. Families go to bed praying not to receive midnight calls announcing the abduction of loved ones,” he said.
The ADC chieftain questioned what benefits Nigerians were deriving from the country’s mounting debt burden when insecurity and economic hardship continued to worsen.
“No nation becomes prosperous by borrowing to finance consumption, sustain wasteful government lifestyles, and paper over policy failures,” he added.
Atiku also referenced the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying reforms implemented during that period helped Nigeria secure debt relief and restore confidence in the economy.
He urged the Federal Government to abandon propaganda and urgently address the country’s economic and security crises with “sincerity, competence, urgency, and compassion” before Nigeria slides deeper into instability.
