The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has told Nigerians not to elect the All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as President, warning that doing so will take Nigeria from ‘frying pan to fire’.
Atiku issued the warning through a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, advising that Nigerians must not be deceived by Tinubu’s message of renewed hope, describing it as “hopelessness in disguise”.
Shaibu said: “It is one week to the election, and expectedly, campaigns have reached fever pitch. But amid the excitement and tension, voters must guard their hearts jealously as the ruling APC will try to use every subterfuge and stratagem in its manual to deceive them once more. These last days are similar to the end time predicted in the Holy books.
“Nigerians must not let themselves be deceived by this man selling renewed hopelessness disguised as renewed hope. Your hope will be taken from you if he is allowed to govern Nigeria. That, indeed, will be a state of hopelessness – hell on earth, frying pan to fire.”
Shaibu said as part of the grand deception, Tinubu, who started his campaign mid-last year with a promise to continue with President Muhammadu Buhari’s ‘impeccable legacy’, has in the last three weeks been promising to reverse them.
He asked Tinubu to make up his mind whether he is running on Buhari’s legacy or running against it, in order not to deceive innocent voters.
Shaibu added: “Tinubu says the petrol scarcity and the Naira shortage are aimed at scuttling his ambition. Later, he and his acolytes said they were only voicing against the policy out of sheer concern for the masses. These are people who never muttered a word when students spent 10 months at home in 2020, and eight months at home in 2022 due to unprecedented university lecturers’ strike.
“These are people that never criticised the President at the height of the insecurity when schoolchildren were being abducted almost on a daily basis and when the Naira witnessed a free fall that led to a sharp increase in the price of goods.
“Tinubu has been campaigning like a ……He has been very pugnacious, believing that his bullion vans stashed with old Naira notes can deliver the votes to him.”
“Someone needs to tell Tinubu and his band of APC governors to please give up this irritating ostentatious performance of moral propriety. They are not angry about the Naira redesign because they love the masses. They are only angry that their plan to unleash bullion vans on poor Nigerians has been thwarted.”
Shaibu further alleged that if Tinubu becomes the president of Nigeria by any improbable chance, he will turn the country into his personal fiefdom and a one party State by muzzling the opposition as he has done in Lagos since 1999.
He also alleged that Tinubu would also make the National Assembly into his foot stool.
Shaibu added: “Tinubu has turned Lagos State into his personal fiefdom by arrogating all powers to himself so much so that even the current Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, publicly refers to him as ‘my principal’, clear evidence that Tinubu is far above the constitutionally recognised authority in the State…”
Shaibu also questioned Tinubu’s mental capacity to lead Nigeria amid the gaffes and slips at the many APC rallies.
He said Nigeria is facing monumental challenges and needs a focused leader, not a man who constantly needs his handlers to explain his unintelligible message to Nigerians.
Shaibu stated: “Tinubu is unfit to rule a country much less a country like Nigeria, which is in a desperate state. Nigeria needs a president who has the mental capacity to get the job done. This is a man whose cognitive capabilities remain in doubt, hence his refusal to attend any debates or town halls, but only attends his own “different town hall,” where he controls the environment. He can hardly answer questions by himself.
“Tinubu’s reason for not attending debates is obvious even to the feeble minded. Should he attend a presidential debate, how will he be able to answer questions on what primary and secondary schools he attended and why he remains the only candidate in the history of Nigeria not to reveal it in his form CF001..?
“His gaffes at rallies and town halls also put his mental capacity to question. Muttering some unintelligible words at a town hall in Owerri last November, Tinubu stated: ‘This is a town hall different from Balabu blu blu, bulaaba’.
“He plans to recruit 50 million youths in the Nigerian Army as a means of tackling unemployment, and he believes Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have expiry dates. These are Tinubu’s words, not mine. He is already a self-written joke and will make Nigeria a laughing stock among the comity of nations, if he is allowed to lead this great country.”