When a leader is leaving power, his preference is to be on the right side of history, not its scrap heap. Apart from apologising to Nigerians whom he might have wronged in the implementation of his policies, President Muhammadu Buhari recently did a post-mortem of the last elections and argued that factors which finished off the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were overconfidence and complacency.
However, former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and PDP presidential candidate in the last polls did not allow that missile to land on his camp before replying with his own bombs. He deployed them today through a statement he signed.
Atiku said rather than comment on the case which was in court already, Buhari should “explain to Nigerians how his government failed to fulfil its promises of making Nigeria better.”
In the words of Atiku: “We have read with disgust the shameful efforts by the Muhammadu Buhari administration in playing the role of chief marketing officer of the electoral heist deliberately orchestrated to keep the ruling All Progressives Congress in power against the wishes of Nigerians.
“Starting from President Muhammadu Buhari himself when he remarked that will forever remain in infamy while hosting some governors of his party, and alleged “the opposition lost the election due to overconfidence and complacency,” we have seen a pattern whereby senior officials of government are subtly bullying the judiciary to submission.
“While it is generally acknowledged that the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has a notoriety of acting busybody, it is ridiculous that the Minister will take a cue from his boss to weigh in on a matter that is already before the courts.
“The Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government has already breasted the tape for being the most irresponsible government in Nigeria on account of breaking its promises.
“Whereas President Buhari and his appointee INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu had promised Nigerians and the entire world of conducting a credible, free and fair 2023 general election wherein technology will be deployed to track and protect every single ballot, we have seen how woefully this administration failed to deliver on its promises.
“We will not wish to explain much on the depravity that trailed the conduct of the 2023 general election since it remains a matter before the judiciary.
“However, it is important to caution the APC and, especially, senior officials of the current administration to desist from making commentaries that portend as subtle acts of bullying against the judicial processes that are currently putting the legality of the last election into trial.
“If officials of the Buhari government must explain anything within their remaining days, let it be about telling Nigerians how they failed on their promises including issues of naira redesign; destruction instead of the creation of jobs; the pervading state of insecurity and divisions along ethnoreligious and political lines; galloping inflation and high cost of living; removing the corruption around the issues of fuel subsidy and their latest promise of conducting a national census, which, typically, they have failed to deliver upon.
“They must also explain to Nigerians why the country that they are leaving behind before going back to the Niger Republic is the poverty capital of the world.”