Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar says the presidency’s latest attack on him shows that the administration of President Bola Tinubu has chosen “diversion over disclosure and insults over accountability”.
In a statement issued on Thursday by Phrank Shaibu, his senior special assistant on public communication, Atiku said the presidency had failed to address the substantive issues surrounding Tinubu’s US civil forfeiture case, opting instead for personal attacks.
“When governments abandon facts for insults and substitute evidence with abuse, they unwittingly admit that they have run out of convincing answers,” the statement reads.
“Nigerians expected clarification. What they received instead was a barrage of name-calling and political invective.”
Atiku said asking questions based on publicly available records should not be construed as an attack on Nigeria’s sovereignty.
“No one has reported Nigeria to anyone. Nigeria is not on trial. The issue concerns questions arising from publicly available records relating to the occupant of the nation’s highest office,” he said.
“Those records were not created by the opposition, the ADC, or any political actor. Attempting to silence legitimate public inquiry by wrapping oneself in the national flag does not answer the questions before the country.”
The former vice-president accused the presidency of reviving old allegations against him instead of responding directly to the issues raised.
“Nigerians can distinguish between political mudslinging and factual responses. Personal attacks do not erase public records, nor do they substitute for transparency,” he stated.
“The Presidency should resist the temptation to personalise issues that require clear and factual explanations.”
Atiku also described as ironic the administration’s attempt to celebrate international endorsements while dismissing international scrutiny.
“You cannot celebrate international validation when it is convenient and condemn international scrutiny when it becomes uncomfortable. Accountability is not foreign interference; it is a democratic obligation,” he said.
He added that electoral victory does not extinguish the public’s right to demand accountability.
“Elections confer political authority, but they do not extinguish the public’s right to ask questions. A democratic mandate is not a substitute for transparency, nor does it exempt any public official from the obligation to account to the people,” he stated.
Atiku urged the presidency to provide factual responses instead of engaging in inflammatory rhetoric.
“If the government believes that the public record has been misunderstood or misrepresented, the appropriate response is to present the facts. Abuse cannot replace evidence, and propaganda cannot replace truth,” he said.
He insisted that Nigerians deserve answers over the long-standing US forfeiture case involving Tinubu.
“The Nigerian people deserve answers, not insults. They want to know if their President forfeited money to the Government of the United States of America on account of drug-related offences,” he added.
“They deserve transparency, not diversion. Until those questions are addressed with facts, no amount of outrage or personal attacks will silence legitimate public inquiry.”
BACKGROUND
The statement came hours after the presidency accused Atiku of attempting to revive Tinubu’s 1993 US civil forfeiture case through foreign lobbyists.
Bayo Onanuga, presidential spokesperson, said Atiku’s decision to hire a Washington-based lobbying firm to circulate US Department of Justice (DOJ) records relating to the case was “self-defeating” and amounted to reporting Nigeria’s president to a foreign government.
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