2027: Tinubu And Atiku On Each Others Neck, Dance Naked

By Ayodele Oni 

President Bola Tinubu and the Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, are at each others neck. Both of them are making public the untidy side of each other.

At a Campaign rally in Port Harcourt Rivers State, President Tinubu stopped short of calling Atiku corrupt.

Accusing Atiku of being one of those responsible for hunger in Nigeria, he urged the public to ask Atiku from where he got funds to build the 

American University, Yola.

Speaking at Ikwerre, Rivers State on Saturday during his presidential campaign rally, Tinubu charged Atiku to reveal how he built a university while he was the vice president of Nigeria.

Tinubu insisted that Atiku used the efforts and money of Nigerians to build his university.

“To every salary earner, there is a dependent and somebody sharing the food at home, those people talking of hunger are talking about the mess they created. 

“Atiku was one of them, ask him how he built a university while in office as Vice President in charge of our economy.

“Who built the university for him, it’s your money, it’s your effort. A man without moral integrity, latitude and ethics for the office.”

But in a swift response, Atiku condemned President  Tinubu’s latest attack on his investment in education, noting that while Tinubu forfeited money in the United States in 1993, he was laying the foundation of American University of Nigeria, formerly known as ABTI.

Atiku maintained that he laid the foundation of the American University of Nigeria in 1993.

In a statement issued by the Director of Strategic Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said: “Again, Bola Tinubu has told Nigerians why they should not allow him to continue as president after his first tenure. 

“He also chose to question my investment in education and ask how I built an educational institution while serving as Vice President.

“The answer is simple: my investment in education predates my time in public service. 

“In 1993, while a U.S. court ordered the forfeiture of funds in an account in your name, describing them as proceeds of narcotics trafficking or funds involved in unlawful financial transactions, I was laying the foundation for ABTI Academy. 

“That Academy has since grown into the American University of Nigeria.

“That moment captures the difference between us. My history is traceable. I can show Nigerians how I built my name, achieved success in business and entered public leadership. 

“Your own history remains clumsy and foggy. You cannot erase it by attacking my record in education.

“A president who has plunged the country into a crushing cost-of-living crisis has no business asking Nigerians for another mandate. 

“The real conversation about the 2027 election is how to repair the damage your government has done.

“You say Nigeria cannot return to subsidy and must move forward. But you cannot even tell Nigerians where you are taking them. 

“Forward into deeper poverty, mounting debt, insecurity and mass unemployment?

“Since your inauguration in 2023, your leadership has become synonymous with hardship, pain and despair. 

“Your record is a working example of how a country should not be led. You have created poverty on an industrial scale, pushing more than 79 million Nigerians into extreme poverty.”