Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is pushing his untested agenda as a better alternative to President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, says the presidency.

Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

He noted that Mr Atiku’s ideas were already rejected by Nigerians in the 2023 election, adding that the ideas lacked details.

According to Mr Onanuga, if the former vice president had won the election, he would have plunged Nigeria into a worse situation or run a regime of cronyism.

“Abubakar lost the election partly because he vowed to sell the NNPC and other assets to his friends.

“Nigerians have not forgotten this, nor would they be comforted by Atiku’s antecedents when he ran the economy in the first term of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government between 1999 and 2003,” he said.

Mr Onanuga added that Mr Atiku supervised a questionable privatisation programme.

“He and his boss demonstrated a lack of faith in our educational system, and both went to establish their universities while they allowed ours to flounder.

“Talk is cheap. It is easy to pontificate and deride a rival’s programmes even when there are irrefutable indices that the economic reforms yield positives despite the temporary difficulties.

“Despite the futile attempt to hoodwink Nigerians again in his statement, it is gratifying that the former Vice President could not repudiate the economic reforms pursued by the Tinubu administration because they are the right things to do,” Mr Onanuga said.

He said the former vice president’s advocacy for a gradualist approach only showed that he was not in tune with the enormity of problems inherited by Tinubu-led administration.

According to him, it is easy to paint a flowery to-do list. 

The presidential aide noted that Mr Tinubu met a country facing several grave challenges.

He recalled that fuel subsidies were siphoning away enormous resources the country could ill afford, and that there was criminal arbitrage in the forex market.

“No leader worth his name will allow these two economic disorders to persist without moving to end them surgically,” Mr Onanuga stated.

He said that, while advocating for gradual reforms may sound appealing, Mr Tinubu took measures that should have been taken decades ago when the former vice president had the opportunity.

Mr Onanuga, however, said the presidency had no problem with Mr Atiku’s calls for empathy and a human face to reforms.

“We have no problem with this as it resonates well with our administration’s focus. Tinubu has consistently emphasised the need for compassion and protection of the most vulnerable.

“The administration has prioritised social safety nets and targeted support for those affected by recent economic transitions,” he said. 

(NAN)