By Bukola Kayode
The Federal Government has rejected the warnings issued by former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, over what he described as pervasive poverty and hunger.
According to the statement signed by the head of his media team, Paul Ibe, the Tinubu Administration has failed in the preforming the primary role of government.
According to Atiku, the current situation does not give cause for cheers as it engenders an increasingly progressive propensity for criminalities in form of high-wire fraud, terrorism, kidnapping, cultism, drug addiction and ritual sacrifice, among others.
Atiku who was the presidential candidate for the PDP in the 2023 election said that the most violent socio-political eruptions and revolutions all over the world had often been powered by pervasive hunger and unbearable material conditions โ especially the paradox of squalor amidst plenty in our land.
Counselling that the current unacceptable situation offers an opportunity for reflection, the former Vice President cited the French Revolution, the 1917 Russian Revolution and the Arab Spring in which a young man caught in the maelstrom of unbearable frustration set himself ablaze in a development which occasioned violent socio-political eruptions starting out from Tunisia to engulf the Middle-East and North Africa.
But in its strongly worded response, the presidency through the Special Adviser on Information to the President, Bayo Onanuga. said Atiku was all talk and no substance.
The statement read in part: “Talk is cheap. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his handlers are clearly out of touch with the positive developments currently unfolding in our country.
“Their claim that hunger is ravaging Nigeria, and their comparison of our situation to the unrest in France before the 1789 Revolution or the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, is grossly misleading”.
Read also: https://frontlinenews.com.ng/atiku-to-fg-high-level-poverty-hunger-in-nigeria-unacceptable/
“Their latest statement demonstrates a disconnect from the authentic Nigerian reality, as recent data tells a different story. Just today, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released its figures for August, showing that headline inflation has declined for the fifth consecutive month. Over the weekend, the NBS also reported a record trade surplus, with the contribution of non-oil exports to our trade balance now nearly matching that of crude oil at a ratio of 48:52 per cent”.
Onanuga pointed to Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves which he said are on the rise and now approaching $42 billion, the presidential spokesman added that when President Tinubu assumed office, reserves stood at $32 billion, much of it encumbered. “This administration has since cleared over $7 billion in arrears, including $800 million owed to airlines”, he added.
“Under President Tinubu, Nigeria is recording unprecedented revenues. States are now able to pay salaries and gratuities promptly and still have surplus funds for capital and social projectsโan achievement not previously witnessed at this scale.
“Nigeria is moving in the right direction. In contrast, Atiku and his party remain stuck in the past, fixated on doomsday scenarios and revolutionary rhetoric. Ironically, many of the challenges we face today stem from the economic mismanagement during the PDP years, when Atiku was Vice President. President Tinubu and his team are working relentlessly to correct those errors, with bold reforms.
“After just two years and five months in office, we are proud of the progress being made under President Tinubuโs leadership. Atiku and his allies may choose to ignore these gains, but Nigerians can see and feel the positive changes taking place across the nation”, the statement further added.
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