Atiku fires back at Tinubu, accuses president of hypocrisy, historical amnesia

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has launched a stinging counterattack on President Bola Tinubu, accusing him of hypocrisy, historical distortion, and an inability to engage documented facts about Nigeria’s economic history.

In a statement issued on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku described Tinubu’s recent remarks as a “reckless tirade” that exposes “a troubling pattern of hypocrisy and historical amnesia.”

The former Vice President expressed astonishment that a president facing persistent questions over his own credentials would attempt to discredit others with well-documented records of public service.

At the centre of the dispute is the issue of privatisation. Atiku’s camp argued that Tinubu’s criticism collapses under scrutiny, recalling that the President had previously opposed the very reforms he now appears to be implementing. The statement said Atiku had long advocated the privatisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the sale of refineries to credible private investors — a position Tinubu reportedly resisted — while the current administration is now presiding over a system that has commercialised 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.

Atiku’s team cited several companies as evidence of the success of the privatisation programme he supervised, including Oando Plc, Conoil Plc, Ardova Plc, Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals, Benue Cement Company, and Transcorp Hilton Abuja — all described as enduring testaments to policies that unlocked value and revived struggling state enterprises.

The statement took a direct swipe at the President’s intellectual posture, saying his comments betray a failure to engage even the most basic documented history of Nigeria’s economic reforms, adding that a thorough reading of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’s memoir, *The Accidental Public Servant*, would have acquainted him with a clear account of the privatisation programme.

“It is not our fault that the President does not and cannot read,” the statement said pointedly, in an allusion to longstanding controversies surrounding Tinubu’s academic credentials.

Atiku’s camp also turned attention to the economic conditions ordinary Nigerians face under the current administration.

“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 statement said, adding that what had been marketed as reform had “translated into hardship without relief.”

The statement criticised Tinubu’s resort to mockery, arguing that it reflects a deeper leadership problem.

“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,” it said.

It concluded by asserting that Atiku’s record remains “clear, documented, and defensible,” while noting that persistent public concerns about the President’s identity, age, and academic history remain unresolved.

“A leader who has not fully resolved questions about his own background should exercise restraint before casting aspersions on others,” the statement warned, signing off with the words: “Nigerians are watching.”