The Presidency has criticised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for urging the resignation of President Bola Tinubu amid escalating security challenges in Nigeria.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, described Atiku’s call as “reckless” and “unbecoming of an elder statesman”.
Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, accused the President of negligence, asserting that Tinubu was “playing the fiddle while Nigeria is drowning in the ocean of insecurity”.
He cited the recent cases of kidnapping and killing of a nursing mother and grandmother in Abuja, and two monarchs in Ekiti, as examples of the failure of Tinubu’s administration to protect Nigerians.
“To imagine that the Commander-in-Chief is on a so-called private visit while kidnappers kill a nursing mother and grandmother in Abuja for failing to pay N90m ransom and two monarchs in Ekiti, among others,” Atiku stated in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
However, the Presidency dismissed Atiku’s statement as a sign of his “hangover” from his electoral defeat and an attempt to capitalise on any issue to criticise President Tinubu.
The statement said Tinubu had duly informed Nigerians of his private visit to France and his return date, and that he was not oblivious of the security challenges in the country.
It added that Tinubu was in constant communication with his officials and security chiefs and had given them directives to “stamp out every form of criminality in the country”.
“If Alhaji Atiku is really concerned about security issues and not playing cheap politics, he should have known that President Tinubu is on top of issues and working hard to restore peace to every part of our country,” the statement noted.
