Tinubu’s three-year report card written in hardship, tears of kidnapped children – Atiku

The African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, on Friday, said President Bola Tinubu’s three-year report card is written in hunger, poverty, and the tears of abducted Nigerian children.

This was as Atiku declared that the era of political complacency, propaganda, and governance by deception is drawing to a close, adding that Nigerians have seen enough and are preparing to reclaim their country through the power of the ballot.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said as the Tinubu administration marks three years in office, “its most fitting report card is not the glossy advertisements, expensive media campaigns, or self-congratulatory speeches emanating from Abuja, but the tears of hungry families, the despair of unemployed youths, the collapse of businesses, and the haunting images of schoolchildren being abducted by criminals while a complacent government looks the other way.”

According to Atiku, every government is entitled to its own opinions, but no government is entitled to its own facts.

He said: “The facts are stubborn and unforgiving. Three years ago, President Tinubu promised renewed hope. What Nigerians have received instead is renewed hardship, renewed insecurity, renewed poverty, and renewed hopelessness.

“Today, millions of Nigerians can no longer afford the basic necessities of life. Food prices have skyrocketed beyond the reach of ordinary families. Inflation has become a cruel tax on the poor. Small and medium-scale businesses are shutting their doors. Investors are fleeing uncertainty. The naira has been battered. Purchasing power has collapsed.

“Never in recent history have so many Nigerians worked so hard only to become poorer. Never has a government celebrated itself so loudly while its citizens suffered so deeply.

“While Nigerians endure the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, this administration continues to manufacture statistics, stage elaborate ceremonies, and engage in endless public relations exercises designed to create the illusion of progress where none exists.

“What makes this failure even more scandalous is the reckless borrowing that has accompanied it. This administration has borrowed trillions of naira in the name of infrastructure and economic development, yet Nigerians cannot see corresponding improvements in their daily lives.

“Public reports indicate that while the Federal Government borrowed approximately N11.9 trillion within a nine-month period, only N3.1 trillion was reportedly spent on capital projects. Nigerians are therefore entitled to ask a simple question: where did the rest of the money go?

“Even more troubling is that a substantial portion of the infrastructure spending that has been publicly highlighted appears concentrated on projects such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Badagry-Sokoto Highway, both awarded to a company owned by a businessman whom President Tinubu publicly described as his ‘partner in daring.’

“This administration has created the disturbing perception that while ordinary Nigerians are being asked to endure sacrifice, the benefits of government spending are increasingly flowing towards a privileged circle of politically connected interests.

“A government that borrows trillions but cannot transparently account for the impact of those borrowings on the lives of its citizens has no business celebrating itself. Nigerians are not interested in debt accumulation. They are interested in results.”