Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, says he will keep reacting to national issues despite being asked by the ruling party to stop doing so.
Igbere TV reports that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had, in a statement, berated the former vice president with a warning to desist from issuing public statements as though he was the president.
Describing the actions as felonious, the APC threatened to move against Atiku Abubakar for portraying himself as a “shadow” or “alternative president.”
Reacting in a statement made available to Igbere TV on Sunday, however, the PDP chieftain said he will keep speaking up for Nigerians who have become victims of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ‘grand cluelessness’.
In the statement issued by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, Atiku said the Buhari administration had not responded to a report by the UNDP which stated that 98 million Nigerians were living in multidimensional poverty because he was yet to make a remark on it.
He taunted President Muhammadu Buhari for saying he had lifted five million Nigerians out of poverty between 2015 and 2019.
Atiku said the Buhari administration was living in denial and relying on propaganda, and only becomes responsive when he comments on issues.
‘’On July 10, the United Nations reawakened Nigerians to the brutal reality of how poorly the Gen Muhammadu Buhari administration has managed the nation’s economy with a damning verdict that 98 million Nigerians live in multi-dimensional poverty,’’ he said.
‘’Like it is typical of General Buhari and his handlers, they didn’t make any comment about the scary statistics coming from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
‘’Perhaps, one reason they didn’t want to comment on the report is because it is factual – Nigerians in the past four years indeed live in multi-dimensional poverty.’
‘’The other plausible reason they didn’t deem it fit to respond to the report is because Atiku Abubakar has yet to make a remark on the report. If the only reason why the Buhari administration will react to the affliction it has brought on Nigerians is for Atiku to call the nation’s attention to how bad things have gone in the country under the slumber of General Buhari, Atiku will more than always, be ready to stand and speak up for the millions of countrymen and women who have become victims of his (Buhari’s) misrule and grand cluelessness”, the statement added.
