The Presidency has fired back at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, accusing him of stoking fear and misrepresenting the state of the nation with claims of hunger and looming unrest.
Atiku, in a statement earlier made available to The News Chronicle, likened Nigeria’s current situation to the crises that sparked the French Revolution of 1789 and Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, warning that widespread hunger could fuel a similar uprising.
But the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President, Bayo Onanuga, dismissed the comparison as reckless and misleading.
“Talk is cheap. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his handlers are clearly out of touch with the positive developments currently unfolding in our country,” Onanuga said.
Citing new data from the National Bureau of Statistics, he pointed to five straight months of declining inflation, a record trade surplus, and a near-parity ratio between non-oil and oil exports (48:52).
He added that Nigeria’s foreign reserves have climbed to nearly $42 billion, up from $32 billion when President Bola Tinubu assumed office, while arrears of more than $7 billion including $800 million owed to international airlines had been cleared.
According to Onanuga, states are now meeting salary and pension obligations promptly, with enough left for capital and social projects, “an achievement not witnessed at this scale before.”
“After just two years and five months in office, we are proud of the progress being made under President Tinubu’s leadership. Atiku and his allies may choose to ignore these gains, but Nigerians can see and feel the positive changes,” he said.
The Presidency accused Atiku and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of clinging to “doomsday scenarios and revolutionary rhetoric,” blaming the country’s lingering challenges on what it called the “economic mismanagement” of the PDP era when Atiku was Vice President.
