Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has challenged President Bola Tinubu‘s administration and its supporters to produce evidence of wrongdoing against him regarding the privatisation of the power sector.
Atiku, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, alleged a “coordinated attempt to change the subject from the economic hardship confronting millions of families to allegations that have been repeatedly thrown around without prosecution.”
The former Vice President, who is the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government of recycling decades-old allegations whenever uncomfortable questions are raised about the management of Nigeria’s resources.
According to him, the sudden resurrection of allegations concerning the power sector, privatisation and public assets is an attempt to divert attention from the question confronting the Tinubu administration, concerning the money accruing to the government after subsidy was removed from ordinary Nigerians.
The former vice president disclosed that the National Assembly investigated the power projects, and he was never invited to answer any allegation of wrongdoing.
Atiku said he chaired the National Council on Privatisation as Nigeria’s vice president, but he disagreed with its concept and did not preside over its implementation.
“The responsible minister did. The same applies to the Aluminium Smelter matter,” he stated, adding that he had repeatedly asked to be investigated.
“I left office in 2007 and have spent much of the period since then opposing governments in power.
“If there is evidence that I stole public money, why has no government produced it before a court?
“It is still not too late. Investigate me. Invite me. Produce the evidence. Prosecute me if you have a case. But propaganda cannot substitute for evidence,” the ADC candidate stated.
Atiku said the attempt to resurrect old accusations intensified because his demand for accountability over the proceeds of subsidy removal strikes at the heart of the Tinubu administration’s economic narrative.
“They removed subsidy from the poor and promised that the sacrifice would free resources for development. Nigerians accepted extraordinary pain on that promise.
“Today, petrol is more expensive, transportation is more expensive, food is more expensive, and the purchasing power of the Nigerian worker has been devastated,” he stated.
Atiku said no amount of sponsored social-media mudslinging would make him retreat from demanding accountability or from proposing economic policies that restore purchasing power to Nigerians.
“The people who removed subsidy from the poor cannot frighten us into silence by resurrecting allegations that governments with all the investigative machinery of the Nigerian state have had nearly two decades to establish,” he added.