2023: APC Reminds Nigerians of Atiku's Fake Promises, Highlights his Sin

BY: News Peddlers

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has warned Nigerians to be wary of fake campaign promises made by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP's presidential candidate for the 2023 general election.

Bayo Onanuga, the APC Presidential Campaign Council's Director of Media and Publicity, stated this in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja.

"We must warn Nigerians to be wary of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his PDP as they embark on their inordinate and desperate campaign to gain power at any cost. A party that should be eternally ashamed of its appalling record in governance between 1999 and 2015 is now busy rewriting history, embellishing the locust years as if they were a golden era in our history.

"Of course, we are not duped; this is fake history at its worst. Nigerians should also not be taken in by the candidate's and his party's bald-faced lies," Mr Onanuga said.

What shocked him the most was Mr Atiku's audacity in standing up to ask for votes despite what his boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, wrote about him in his book, 'My Watch.'

He claimed that Mr Obasanjo wrote that imposing Mr Atiku on Nigeria would be an unforgivable mistake and a sin against God, and that the former president still believed that until tomorrow.

"However, we are not entirely surprised by Atiku's latest desperation.

"Aware that this is his last chance at the elusive presidency, Atiku has been spewing a series of lies while campaigning.

"Making empty promises and presenting a false narrative about our current reality and the legacy of the PDP administration's 16-year ignoble era, of which he was a principal actor," Mr Onanuga said.

Mr. Atiku's claim at his rally in Abuja on Saturday that the country was not safe for trading and farming was false, he said.

Mr Atiku had been pushing for this for some time, he said, "since relocating to Nigeria from his base in Dubai, primarily to run in the 2023 presidential election."

The APC PCC Director of Media and Publicity expressed hope that, in private, Atiku would admit that his views on insecurity were exaggerated.

According to Onanuga, the country is far more secure than it was in 2015, when the PDP allowed insurgents to seize 17 LGAs in Borno.

He added that this was in addition to four councils in Atiku's home state of Adamawa during a time when Abuja was under constant bomb attacks and people slept with their eyes wide open.

He wondered what more proof of the APC's progress Atiku needed than the fact that he was able to transport his party's men and women to Maiduguri to hold a rally without being attacked by insurgents and bandits.

"Atiku can also drive smoothly from Yola, his state capital, to Jada, his hometown, on a road rebuilt by President Muhammadu Buhari's APC administration."

The road was impassable for eight years during Atiku's tenure as Vice President, deteriorating to the point where it was completely cut off from civilisation until the Buhari administration rebuilt it.

"The most grotesque of Atiku's promises is that he will stop the ASUU strike so that universities can reopen forever and ever."

"Atiku forgot to tell his audience that in 2009, a PDP government signed an agreement with ASUU that was never implemented for six years, leaving the mess of the agreement for the APC to deal with," Onanuga said.

He claimed that while the PDP allowed Nigerian universities to rot, Atiku and his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, decided to establish their own universities, ABTI-American University and Bell University, for the children of the wealthy.

He stated that his promise to sell the newly commercialised NNPC Ltd and all its assets and subsidiaries for only ten billion dollars demonstrated that this former vice president's character as portrayed by Obasanjo had not changed.

He went on to say that even before inviting bids, Atiku had undervalued the oil conglomerate in the same way he had undervalued Nigerian companies he was asked to sell.

This, he claimed, was done as part of the Obasanjo administration's abused privatisation programme.

In 2019, Atiku made a similar promise, saying he would sell the NNPC to his friends and cronies, according to Onanuga.

"Certainly, he retains the same mindset, albeit with a different terminology: privatisation."

During his election campaign. In presenting himself for election, Atiku has repeatedly told less discerning Nigerians that he is on a recovery and restoration mission.

"Every Nigerian should ask him in pidgin: Recover Wetin."

"Can the PDP ever be a recovery vehicle for our country, given its previous track record of spending 16 billion dollars on power that only resulted in worsening darkness?" Onanuga asked.

He questioned whether the PDP could ever be a recovery vehicle while also facilitating the privatisation of power distribution to cronies, resulting in even more darkness.

"The 2.5 billion dollar Nigeria-Siemens deal initiated by the Buhari administration is now the nation's hope for uninterrupted electricity."

"We must also question whether the PDP expects to be a recovery vehicle for our armed forces after diverting billions of dollars allocated for arms into private pockets and marabouts during its tenure."

Our ill-equipped soldiers were abandoned in the face of superior-weapons guerrillas.

"Today, President Buhari's APC government has changed the fortunes of our armed forces and boosted morale with modern weapons, fighter jets, warships, and others," Onanuga said.

He questioned whether a party that could not recover from its internal implosion and crisis could recover and save Nigeria.

He stated that the PDP must first save and recover itself, as well as its abandoned national secretariat.

Mr Onanuga claimed that after raising over N20 billion to build a national party office, the PDP and its leaders misappropriated the funds in the same way they misappropriated our country.

As a result, he advised Nigerians to disregard anything Atiku Abubakar says, calling him a desperate politician who should never be trusted.

"Atiku is not coming to save Nigerians; he is only coming to put money back into his and his cronies' pockets," Mr Onanuga said.

NAN