The healthy debate on the reform agenda and governance between President Bola Tinubu and former Vice President and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar continued Monday with the latter urging the President to focus on governance rather than verbally assault his critics.

In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku dismissed accusations of jealousy directed at him by the presidency, noting that he is more concerned about the economic mismanagement under Tinubu’s administration.

“On July 8, 2024, Tinubu announced that import duty on essential goods like food would be lifted for 150 days. But over 120 days later, the policy is yet to take off, while Nigerians continue to die daily due to increasing costs, including food inflation, which now exceeds 40%, the highest in decades.

“The brazen disobedience to a government policy by Tinubu’s appointees and the failure of the finance ministry to issue a gazette after over four months reflects the fatuousness, inanity, and incompetence that characterizes the Tinubu administration.

“Sadly, rather than focus on governance, they are preoccupied with verbally assaulting their opponents – Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi – while using compromised courts to foster crisis in the opposition. What a shame!”

He added: “Tinubu was obviously unprepared for office. He acts first and thinks of the consequences afterward. This was why he announced an abrupt removal of the petrol subsidy without any cushions. After seeing the effect, he then hurriedly decided to push a CNG initiative, which even he and his ministers have not embraced, hence their refusal to use it.

“The CNG initiative has so far failed to fully kick-off because of a lack of gas infrastructure in most states. The result is that transport costs continue to soar along with prices of food.

“In his mid-term expenditure framework, he projected the exchange rate at N700/$1 in 2024 and N650/$1 by 2025. Rather than sack his economic advisers, he continues to live in a fool’s paradise, deceiving Nigerians about the FX reserve of $40bn when, in fact, the net reserves are less than 20% of that. Let the CBN release its financial statements of 2023 if he is sure of his achievements.”

Atiku described as unfortunate emergence of a new terror group known as Lakurawa as confirmed by the military authorities. Adding that with the incessant grid collapses in the north due to the activities of criminal elements, Tinubu ought to focus more on improving security, which is a sine qua non for investments.

The former Vice President urged the President to stop playing politics with security by appointing his kinsmen to top security and economic positions. “Even on the economy, he put his kinsmen in every key position beginning from finance minister, trade and investment, CBN, customs, and FIRS. Even President Muhammadu Buhari was not this brazen.

“Unlike Tinubu, Atiku is not a bigot. He has also not refunded money to the United States for alleged drug trafficking.”

Atiku opined that despite a huge revenue challenge, Tinubu commits over $13bn to the controversial Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, rendering scores of Lagos residents homeless just to please his associates while other pressing matters are denied funds.

The former Vice President said the President has just barely two years left in office and he should focus on improving the lives of the people. “It is ludicrous to claim that Atiku is jealous of Tinubu. Hell no, Atiku cannot be jealous of Tinubu inflicting pain on Nigerians. Wickedness is an exclusive preserve of Tinubu and no compassionate leader who truly cares about the wellbeing of Nigerians should be jealous of what is an exclusive preserve of T-Pain”.

“It is disheartening that during the last protests, some frustrated young Nigerians were waving Russian flags and calling on the military to take over. God forbids a return to those dark days, but leaders must not push their citizens to a point where citizens choose fire over a frying pan.

“Nigeria is currently the worst performing currency in Africa and is now the 5th largest economy on the continent, falling from first when the failure called APC took over in 2015. Most Nigerians are at their wits’ end, not knowing where their next meal will come from. This should be Tinubu’s biggest concern instead of fiddling while the country burns.”