“You Can’t Even Unite Your Party with Only 13 Governors” – Presidency Knocks Atiku

The Presidency has launched a fresh response to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s criticism of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic policies.

Atiku, who lost the 2023 presidential election to Tinubu, described the current administration’s approach as “trial-and-error” and “palliative economy.”

He argued that implementing multiple reforms simultaneously, such as exchange rate, electricity tariff, and petrol price adjustments, would be “overkill”.

Atiku suggested that his administration would have adopted a gradual approach to subsidy removal, citing examples from Malaysia and Indonesia.

However, the Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on Sunday countered that Atiku’s ideas lacked detail and were rejected by Nigerians in the 2023 polls. Onanuga also warned that an Atiku-led administration would have plunged Nigeria into a worse situation or resulted in cronyism.

In a fresh response by the Presidency, the Special Adviser to the President on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, further dismissed Atiku’s criticism.

He said, “You weren’t elected, Alhaji. You can’t even unite your party with only 13 governors. You can’t provide proper leadership to be considered a serious opposition.”

The PDP is facing a crisis at the national level, which many commentators attribute to the fallout between Atiku Abubakar and former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike. The tension arose after the party’s primary, where Atiku emerged as the presidential candidate for the 2023 election.