Atiku to Tinubu: Nigerians deserve answers, not insults

Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has accused the Presidency of resorting to personal attacks instead of addressing questions he said were of legitimate public interest, insisting that “insults cannot replace transparency.”

Mr Atiku, in a statement issued on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the Presidency’s latest response to him was an indication that the Tinubu administration had chosen “diversion over disclosure and insults over accountability.”

He said rather than respond to the issues he raised, the Presidency devoted its attention to attacking his personality.

“When governments abandon facts for insults and substitute evidence with abuse, they unwittingly admit that they have run out of convincing answers. Nigerians expected clarification. What they received instead was a barrage of name-calling and political invective,” he said.

The former vice president argued that asking questions based on public records should not be interpreted as an attack on Nigeria’s sovereignty.

According to him, the issues raised concern publicly available records relating to President Bola Tinubu and not the Nigerian state.

“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. Those records were not created by the opposition, the ADC, or any political actor,” Mr Atiku stated.

He added that attempts to silence public inquiry by invoking patriotism would not address the questions being asked.

Mr Atiku also criticised the Presidency for revisiting past political allegations against him instead of responding directly to the issues under discussion.

He maintained that Nigerians were capable of distinguishing between political attacks and factual explanations, stressing that personal attacks could neither erase public records nor replace transparency.

The former vice president further described as ironic what he called the administration’s position on international scrutiny.

According to him, a government that actively seeks foreign investment, loans and favourable international ratings should not portray international scrutiny as an attack on Nigeria’s sovereignty.

“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.

Mr Atiku also dismissed the suggestion that electoral victory automatically shields elected officials from public scrutiny.

He argued that while elections confer political authority, they do not extinguish citizens’ right to demand accountability from public office holders.

“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 said.

The former vice president urged the Presidency to abandon what he described as its combative posture and instead provide factual responses to issues raised by Nigerians.

“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.

Mr Atiku maintained that history had shown that governments confident of their records respond to scrutiny with openness rather than hostility.

He added that Nigerians deserved answers to questions surrounding allegations that President Tinubu forfeited funds to the United States government in connection with alleged drug-related offences, insisting that transparency, rather than personal attacks, remained the appropriate response.