Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, on Friday, faulted President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms and accused him of distorting Nigeria’s reform history.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) argued that the impact of Tinubu’s policies was evident in Nigerians’ daily struggles.
Atiku also described the President’s recent remarks as a “reckless tirade” that exposes “a troubling pattern of hypocrisy and historical amnesia.”
He said, “Across the country, families are skipping meals, businesses are shutting their doors, and hardworking citizens are watching their incomes evaporate under the weight of relentless inflation and a collapsing purchasing power.
“The cost of living has become unbearable, insecurity continues to stalk communities, and hope is steadily giving way to despair. What has been marketed as reform has translated into hardship without relief—policies that bite harder each day while offering no clear path to recovery.
“This is the true state of the nation, and no amount of rhetoric can mask the pain etched into the lives of ordinary Nigerians.”
Atiku also dismissed Tinubu’s position on privatisation, arguing that his criticisms do not stand up to scrutiny.
The statement recalled that Atiku had long advocated the privatisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the sale of refineries to credible private investors—policies it claimed Tinubu opposed at the time.
According to the statement, the current administration is now presiding over what it described as a commercialisation of the national oil company “in opacity—without clear valuation, without transparency, and with lingering questions about who truly benefits.”
“This is not reform; it is privatisation without accountability,” the statement declared.
Defending his record in office, Atiku cited several companies as evidence of the success of the privatisation programme he supervised, including Oando Plc (formerly Unipetrol), Conoil Plc, African Petroleum (now Ardova Plc), Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals, Benue Cement Company, and Transcorp Hilton Abuja, which he described as products of policies that unlocked value and revived struggling state enterprises.
The statement further criticised the President’s grasp of Nigeria’s economic reform history, accusing him of failing to engage with documented accounts.
“It is not our fault that the President does not and can not read, because Bola Tinubu has a history of attending a school in Lagos two years before it was founded, upon which he claimed his crooked Chicago State University degree.
“If he were properly educated, he would have acquainted himself with the privatisation records in the presidency or the painstaking account of these reforms as captured by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai in The Accidental Public Servant, where the privatisation programme was clearly documented as a bold and structured effort to dismantle inefficiency and drive private sector-led growth.”
The former VP said it was ironic that a president facing persistent public scrutiny over his own credentials would attempt to discredit others with well-documented records of public service.
The statement added that Tinubu’s remarks could only have been made in ignorance of facts already available in public records.
“You cannot oppose reform when it demands courage and then execute a shadow version of it in power,” the statement added.
Atiku also faulted the tone of the President’s comments, saying his resort to mockery reflects a deeper leadership concern.
“The President’s attempt to reduce a serious economic legacy to playground ridicule only underscores a deeper problem: a leadership more comfortable with insults than with facts,” the statement said.
