Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has bemoaned the fact that, in just 40 days under President Bola Tinubu’s leadership, poverty has gotten worse in Nigeria, inflation has skyrocketed, and uninformed Nigerians are more vulnerable to manipulation.
Additionally, it forbade Tinubu and All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters from interfering with the work of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).
In a statement released yesterday, Phrank Shaibu, his Special Assistant on Public Communication, said the warning was necessary in light of an alleged “sponsored protest” at the European Union (EU) headquarters in Abuja following the publication of the EU Observer Mission report on the 2023 general elections.
“Today, food has become a luxury. The purchasing power of the people has dropped no thanks to an unplanned petrol subsidy removal, which was not accompanied by any form of palliatives. With just N1,000, any riffraff on the street could be handed a t-shirt and placard to engage in protests they know nothing about. This is how low Nigeria has sunk low since Tinubu took over the reins of government. Tinubu blamed Godwin Emefiele for the country’s economic woes and ordered his detention while he continues to shower praises on the man who not only appointed Emefiele but gave him a national award. This is the height of hypocrisy,” he said.
The EU report had scored the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) low over the conduct of the election. However, the Presidency kicked against the report.
Nevertheless, the PDP candidate said it was curious that security agencies allegedly provided cover for protesters to picket the EU office in Abuja.
“We find it curious that the same security agencies which have been issuing statements barring protests were curiously available to provide cover for sponsored pro-government protesters to picket the EU office. We sound a note of warning to the security agencies to be on the alert as the tribunal proceedings wind down. The world is watching.”
He added: “No one needs to be told that the 2023 presidential election was one of the worst ever conducted in Nigeria’s history. The 2007 election was similarly bad, but at least, the key recipient, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, admitted the poll was flawed and immediately kicked off electoral reforms. However, Tinubu, by rejecting the EU report, has ruled out the possibility of electoral reform.
“Tinubu is the opposite of a statesman. He claims the 2023 election is the best Nigeria has had since 1999 and continues to draw parallels between it and the epochal June 12, 1993 election by constantly mentioning the name of MKO Abiola and Hope 93. This is the height of deception. MKO’s victory was spick and span. MKO Abiola represented the hope of a generation while Tinubu stole the hope of a generation. Tinubu’s renewed hope is nothing but renewed hopelessness, a continuation of Buhari’s eight years of monumental failure. It is simply, as the youths say, ‘renewed shege’. We ask Nigerians to tarry a while as we wait for the judiciary to correct the evil that INEC imposed on over 200 million people.”
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