Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has characterised President Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s “number one enemy,” labelling him a failure and an incompetent leader, and urging Nigerians to unite against Mr Tinubu for their “collective survival.”
In a statement released on Friday, Mr Atiku expressed that he holds no animosity towards his running mate in the 2023 presidential election, Ifeanyi Okowa, or Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, who has left the Peoples Democratic Party for the All Progressives Congress.
He asserted that the 2027 election would represent a confrontation between suffering Nigerians and their “number one enemy,” Mr Tinubu.
He stated, “Let us be clear: the coming political battle is not APC versus PDP, or LP versus APC. It is Nigerians versus an administration that has plunged the nation into untold suffering. The economy is in freefall. Inflation is choking the masses. Jobs are vanishing. Youth restiveness is surging to terrifying levels. Nigerians are not just tired — they are angry, and rightfully so. This moment is about collective survival. The real enemy is not one another — it is the Tinubu administration’s abysmal failure. We must reject every attempt to distract us with ethnic, regional, or religious sentiments. These are tools of manipulation, designed to divide and conquer, used by those with nothing else to offer.”
The opposition leader acknowledged that defections, alliances, and realignments are integral to democratic politics, saying, “We’ve seen them before, and we’ll see them again.” He further lamented Mr Tinubu’s incompetent leadership, which “has no achievements to stand on, no credible record to defend.”
In response, presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga ridiculed Mr Abubakar on Thursday regarding Mr Okowa’s defection, labelling the opposition leader’s political future as grim.
“Atiku’s political future looks bleak. The coalition that he, El Rufai, Babachir, and new member Baba-Ahmed are cobbling together has disintegrated. Potential allies, including a former running mate Ifeanyi Okowa and defunct CPC members, are giving his leprous group a wide berth. Atiku is a loser again,” Mr Onanuga remarked in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
