Trending 
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said President Bola Tinubu cannot seek another four years in office while sending governors, ministers and defectors across the country to defend the hardship of the past three and a half years.
Atiku said Tinubu must face Nigerians and account for his first term before asking for a new mandate.
“Tinubu says he may miss campaign rallies because Nigeria needs his attention. Where was that urgency when Nigerians pleaded for relief?” Atiku said in a statement issued by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of his ADC Presidential Campaign Council.
“He has had three and a half years to govern. In that time, families have been forced to cut meals, postpone medical care and watch their earnings lose value before they get home.”
‘Let him face the people’
Atiku challenged the President to address Nigerians directly on the cost of living.
“Let him look a mother in the eye and explain what his government has done to make food affordable. Let him tell pensioners why they cannot afford their medicines. Let him explain to young Nigerians why years of study and hard work have still not brought them decent jobs,” he said.
He added: “Tinubu says American creditors cannot wait. Nigerians cannot wait either. They have bills to pay, children to feed and lives to rebuild. They deserve a President who treats their suffering with the same urgency he gives creditors and investors.”
‘He cannot fill an empty pot with surrogates’
Atiku criticised the President’s reliance on campaign surrogates.
“Instead, he is assembling a crowd of politicians to speak for him. He can fill every campaign stage in Nigeria. He cannot fill an empty pot with surrogates. He cannot send a politician into a market to persuade prices to fall,” he said.
“The people on his campaign council did not receive the mandate in 2023. Tinubu did. He made the promises. He took the decisions. He must face the questions.”
Atiku said voters would judge the President on their lived experience.
“Nigerians will hear whatever his surrogates have to say. But when they vote, they will remember what they have lived through. No crowd of politicians can stand between Tinubu and his record,” he said.
