Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of looting Nigeria’s treasury and worsening poverty through the removal of petrol subsidy.
Abubakar, who lost the 2023 presidential election to Tinubu, also accused the president of stealing both the election and the economy.
“We are competing with thieves. They have stolen the election. Now they have stolen the economy. They have stolen everything,” he alleged.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate for 2027 spoke on Tuesday at his Asokoro residence in Abuja while hosting ADC politicians from Osun.
“The removal of subsidy has driven more Nigerians into poverty than at any other time in the history of this country,” Abubakar said. “On the question of subsidy, my position has not changed and will not change: I will restore it! A nation as blessed as ours has no business abandoning its citizens to hardship. Nigeria is rich enough to look after her own.”
Abubakar added, “The wealth of a nation is not measured by how much government collects, but by how much the money in the pockets of its people can buy. The fundamental responsibility of the government is the welfare of the citizens.”
However, the presidency last month cited a 2010 US Senate report, saying “Atiku, along with his former wife Jennifer Douglas, was one of the subjects of an elaborate US Senate investigation, ‘Keeping Foreign Corruption Out of the United States: Four Case Histories’.”
It said the report documented allegations that Abubakar used offshore companies to move millions of dollars in suspect funds into the US.
“It documented how Atiku used offshore companies to bring suspect funds, including bribes from multinationals, running into millions of dollars, into the United States,” the presidency stated. “A man with such a dismal record as a public servant certainly has no business asking for our votes. Indeed, if Atiku Abubakar were a Chinese, he would be rotting away in jail for his crimes against the Nigerian people.”
