Former vice president Atiku Abubakar on Thursday berated President Bola Tinubu, accusing his government of making dubious promises.

Mr Abubakar, the presidential candidate of African Democratic Congress for 2027, in a statement, ridiculed Mr Tinubu’s Independence Day’s speech, asking for progress report on his promise to make transportation costs cheaper by October 1.

“Typical of yourself, everything is fake. You promised Nigerians lower transport fares from October 1st. Today is October 1st. Did your promise miss the bus? In your Independence Day speech, you attacked my plan to make life affordable, but you did not tell Nigerians which additional routes became cheaper today. Bola, was this a yahoo yahoo promise?,” Mr Abubakar stated.

Mr Abubakar also challenged Mr Tinubu to highlight his government’s achievements in the past three years and stop telling Nigerians what he would do.

“Bola, your speech is full of ‘we will, we will, we will, we will, we will make farming cheaper, we will power factories, we will create jobs, we will bring down prices.’ You have been president for more than three years. Nigerians are entitled to ask: what have you done with the time already given to you?,” Mr Abubakar said 

Mr Abubakar’s statement partly responded to Mr Tinubu’s dismissal of his call for fuel subsidy restoration as a idea from regressive opposition. 

In his Independence Day speech on Thursday, Mr Tinubu said: “Now, as certain influential but regressive voices would have us abandon the treatment and return ourselves to the abuse of addictive subsidies, we must resist their siren song. We must remember why we began this journey and how far we have already come. Our reforms did not create the weaknesses in our economy. They confronted them.”

Describing fuel subsidy as a deadly “cancer,” Mr Tinubu dismissed those calling for its return as regressive, adding that Nigerians cannot deny evidence of improved economic outlook under his watch.