Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has blasted President Bola Tinubu following his Independence Day speech in which he claimed that Nigeria has turned a corner and everything is now rosy for the citizens.
Tinubu, in his speech on Wednesday, said Nigeria has turned the corner of laying foundations in concrete and not on quicksand in the areas of education, healthcare, economy, and national security.
But the former presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic (PDP) who reacted to Tinubu’s address on Nigeria’s 65th Independence Day anniversary, said there is nothing to celebrate under the present administration as Nigerians are hungry, despondent and have been turned into beggars in their country with immense human and material resources.
In a statement he posted on his verified X handle, Atiku said:
“It is tragic that in a country blessed with immense human and material resources, millions of our people have been reduced to refugees and beggars in their fatherland.
“Every responsible government holds the welfare and security of its citizens as supreme. But what we have today is an administration that has abandoned its people.
“Hunger is killing Nigerians, bandits are massacring communities, yet President Tinubu and his cabinet stand by, unmoved and uncaring.
‘The beauty of democracy lies in the power of the ballot. Oppressed and battered as our people may feel today, they will have the chance to sweep away this inept government at the next polls. That is the power no cabal can take away from the people.
“At 65, Nigeria remains a giant moving painfully slow on feet of clay, a direct result of decades of poor leadership and wasteful governance.
“Nonetheless, with the right leadership, our dear country can still rise from the ashes of failed governance to reclaim its rightful place among the comity of nations.
“I wish all Nigerians a happy 65th Independence Day anniversary celebration.”