The government of President Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, took a swipe at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, calling him a corrupt fellow who lacks the moral rectitude to report Mr Tinubu’s forfeiture of money in a cocaine trafficking case to the U.S. government.

Bayo Onanuga, spokesperson for Mr Tinubu, in a statement, asked, “When will Atiku Abubakar report himself to President Trump?”, adding that the former vice president has “regrettably closed his eyes to the virtues of statesmanship, decorum, and propriety” and has continued “to diminish himself through reckless public statements and desperate political manoeuvres.”

Berating Mr Abubakar, the presidential spokesperson said, “It is baffling and disappointing that someone who has sought the presidency for over three decades now resorts to reporting the President of Nigeria to U.S. President Donald Trump and members of the U.S. Congress.”

He added, “In his latest act, Atiku Abubakar’s lobbying group in the U.S. has submitted petitions to President Trump and the US State Department regarding a civil forfeiture case from 1993—a matter long settled, with no criminal conviction or finding of guilt.”

Mr Onanuga also claimed that Mr Tinubu’s forfeiture of money linked to cocaine trafficking to U.S. authorities in the 1990s “was resolved over 30 years ago in the United States and has been thoroughly litigated, explained, and rendered moot by the electoral mandates conferred on President Bola Tinubu by the people of Lagos and Nigeria at large.”

Though Mr Tinubu was reported to the U.S., the country where he was involved in a cocaine trafficking case, the presidential spokesperson argued that Nigeria is a sovereign nation and “Reporting the President of Nigeria to another country’s leader is not only inappropriate but also undermines the nation’s dignity and independence. Such actions are incongruous with the responsibilities of a statesman and are ultimately self-defeating.”

Mr Onanuga dug out Mr Abubakar’s involvement in a bribery and corruption scandal, arguing, “if Atiku Abubakar can spend $1.2 million on American lobbyists to report President Tinubu, perhaps he should also clarify his own legal standing in the United States. He featured most prominently in the William Jefferson bribery scandal, a matter which saw the American congressman jailed.”

According to Mr Onanuga, Atiku, along with his former wife, Jennifer Douglas, was one of the subjects of an elaborate US Senate investigation, “Keeping Foreign Corruption Out of the United States: Four Case Histories”. The report of the investigation, chaired by Senator Carl Levin, was released in February 2010. It documented how Atiku used offshore companies to bring suspect funds, including bribes from multinationals, running into millions of dollars, into the United States.”

Furthermore, Mr Onanuga said, “Nigerians have not forgotten the legacy of the privatisation programme under Atiku’s watch as vice president. He presided over an egregious privatisation heist, selling national assets to cronies for peanuts and causing thousands of job losses and unpaid salaries and pensions that President Tinubu is clearing today.”

He added, “A man with such a dismal record as a public servant certainly has no business asking for our votes. Indeed, if Atiku Abubakar were a Chinese, he would be rotting away in jail for his crimes against the Nigerian people.”

The presidency’s outburst comes as a reaction to a U.S. lobby team reporting Mr Tinubu’s sordid past to U.S. authorities ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Mr Tinubu’s involvement in narcotics trafficking, which saw him forfeit $460,000 to the U.S. government in 1993, featured prominently in public debate during the 2023 election.

Aaron Greenspan, in collaboration with Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin, filed a suit seeking the release of Mr Tinubu’s records held by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

Though the FBI announced its decision to release the president’s records, which numbered approximately 2,500 pages, in batches of 500 pages per month in 2023, an objection by the Nigerian leader stalled the case.