The foremost presidential candidate in the country and respected national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has cautioned Nigerians to be skeptical of promises made by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who he said is only desperate to gain power by all means.
He gave the admonition in a statement issued Sunday in Abuja by the Director, Media and Publicity of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).
He said PDP should be eternally shameful about its appalling record in governance between 1999 and 2015.
“We need to warn Nigerians to be wary of the sugar-coated promises of former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, and his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as they embark on their inordinate and desperate campaign to gain power at all cost,” Tinubu said.
He lamented that the party is now busy rewriting history, embellishing the locust years as if it was a golden era in Nigeria’s history.
“Of course, this is fake history at its worst. We are not fooled.
“Nigerians should also not be fooled about the boldfaced lies, being articulated by the candidate and his party.
“What is more shocking is Atiku’s audacity in standing up to ask for our votes despite what his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote about him in his book, ‘My Watch’.
“Obasanjo wrote that it would have been an unpardonable mistake and sin against God to foist him on Nigeria.
“Obasanjo still believes so till tomorrow,” he said.
Tinubu noted that Obasanjo still regrets till today making Atiku his vice president in 1999 as he added that he was, however, not totally surprised about Atiku’s latest desperation.
“Aware that this is his last shot at the elusive presidency, Atiku, while on the hustings, has been spewing series of lies, making empty promises and presenting a false narrative about our present reality and the legacy of the 16-year ignoble era of the PDP administration, of which he was a principal actor.
“He claimed at his rally in Abuja on Saturday that the country is not secure for trading and farming, a false narrative that he has been pushing around for some time, since he relocated to Nigeria from his base in Dubai, principally to contest the election.
“We believe in his private moment that Atiku will concede that his view about insecurity is exaggerated.
“Our country is certainly better secured than in 2015 when the PDP allowed insurgents to seize 17 local councils in Borno and some four councils in Atiku’s home state of Adamawa State, when Abuja was under constant bomb attacks and people slept with eyes wide open.
“What further proof of progress made by the APC does Atiku need than the fact that he was able, recently, to carry his party men and women to Maiduguri to hold a rally, without any attacks by insurgents and bandits.
“Atiku can also drive smoothly from Yola, his state capital to Jada, his home town on a reconstructed road by the Buhari-led APC administration.
“The road was impassable for the eight years Atiku was Vice President and got progressively bad and totally cut off from civilisation until the Buhari government reconstructed it.
“Atiku claimed that our country has the highest number of out-of school children in the world, without telling his audience that the problem, which was exacerbated by banditry in North West and insurgency in North East, took its root from the stewardship of his party when the population of out-of-school children phenomenally rose from 10.5 million in 2010 to 13.2 million in 2015.
“The most grotesque of Atiku’s promise is that he will ensure that the ASUU stopped going on strike so that universities “reopen forever and ever”.
“Mr Atiku forgot to tell his audience that a PDP government in 2009 signed an agreement with ASUU, which it never implemented for six years, leaving the mess of the agreement for APC to deal with.
“Meanwhile, as Nigerian universities were left to rot under the PDP’s watch, Atiku and his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo opted to set up their own universities, ABTI-American University and Bell University, meant for the children of the rich.
“A pointer that this former vice-president has not changed in his character as portrayed by Obasanjo was his promise to sell the newly commercialised NNPC Ltd and all its assets and subsidiaries for just $10 billion.
“Even before inviting bids, he had already undervalued the oil conglomerate, the way he undervalued Nigerian companies he was asked to sell, under the abused privatisation programme of the Obasanjo administration.
“Nigerians will remember that he made a similar promise in 2019, saying he would sell the NNPC to his friends and cronies. Surely, he retains the same mindset, though he has changed the terminology to ‘privatisation’.
“In his campaign. Atiku’s refrain has been to tell the less-discerning Nigerians that he is on a recovery and restoration mission in presenting himself to be elected.
“The question every Nigerian must ask him in pidgin is: Recover Wetin?”, Tinubu queried.
