Wike slams Atiku, calls him liar over hunger, insecurity remarks
Nyesom Wike, minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has launched a fresh attack on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, describing him as a liar.
Speaking on Channels TV on Thursday night, Mr Wike dismissed Mr Atiku’s recent comments linking Nigeria’s worsening insecurity to poverty and hunger.
“Do you know I am the last person that reads whatever Atiku (Abubakar) says because he has no truth. He lies. No single truth,” the minister said.
Mr Wike added, “So, who is Atiku to be telling us about hunger or revolution? I would prefer I don’t speak to him. He was a vice president for eight years. Why didn’t he put everything in proper shape so that there wouldn’t be hunger again?”
The fresh attack on the opposition leader came after he expressed concern over the level of hunger and poverty among Nigerians.
Mr Atiku, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had earlier criticised President Bola Tinubu’s administration for failing to address what he described as an escalating hunger crisis.
In a statement issued by his spokesman, Paul Ibe, the opposition leader warned that the widespread poverty and hunger could push the poor to the brink and also trigger ‘revolution’.
He added that the Mr Tinubu-led ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) seems to have no clear solutions to the hunger in the land.
“At this time, there are no manifest signs that this government is capable of addressing the grim issue of severe hunger staring the poor in the face after two years in power,” Mr Atiku said.
He added, “The French Revolution, the 1917 Russian Revolution and the Arab Spring, in which a young man caught in the maelstrom of unbearable frustration set himself ablaze in a development which occasioned violent socio-political eruptions starting out from Tunisia to engulf the Middle East and North Africa.
“Back home here in Nigeria, it may not be out of place to argue that even the “ENDSARS” protest was fuelled by the traumatising frustration of hunger and insensitivity on the part of the government.”
Mr Wike’s latest outburst marks a fresh round in the long-running feud between the two prominent politicians.
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