On Sunday, the Presidency faulted the claims of former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25, 2023 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, that the country is undergoing economic hardship, News About Nigeria reports.
In a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, and titled “Atiku Abubakar and his new hobby”, the presidency said that it was hypocritical that the former presidential aspirant should accuse President Bola Tinubu of having a poor response to the nation’s challenges and causing pain and despair when he did not offer any better policy options in his run for the presidency different from the economic reform agenda being pursued by Tinubu.
Onanuga claimed that Atiku has discovered a new hobby to keep him busy, stating that this new hobby was the opposition-in-chief to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his government.
He maintained that Atiku, having failed to achieve his lifelong ambition of becoming the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, had a lot of time on his hands and, instead of channelling it into something useful, decided to use it to criticise President Tinubu’s every move.
He further countered the former Vice President’s claim, saying that it is pedestrian and uninformed.
“The former Vice President, just like in his political contests, is also doing a poor job of offering pedestrian and uninformed interventions on our economy and other matters of public concern.
“His claim that the government’s policies have created intense cost of living pressures are also not grounded on facts as recent comparative cost of living indices show that Nigerians still enjoy the lowest cost of living in Africa,” the statement read.
