Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has challenged President Bola Tinubu’s claim that Nigeria has entered an era of prosperity, insisting that millions of Nigerians cannot eat economic growth figures while struggling with soaring living costs.
In his Independence Day address, Atiku, the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, said three years of the Tinubu administration had plunged Nigerians into the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis, with families unable to afford food, healthcare, transport and education.
He faulted the government’s handling of fuel subsidy removal, taxation and other reforms, saying they had deepened hardship.
Atiku questioned why government coffers had grown while citizens could afford less, and demanded accountability for the savings from subsidy removal.
The former Vice-President pledged to introduce a capped, budgeted production subsidy tied to locally refined fuel if elected, promising to make life affordable again and protect lives.
He also criticised the government’s overlapping budgets and loan programmes, accusing Tinubu of offering promises rather than tangible relief.
Atiku called for due process in high-profile cases and the release of five young Nigerians arrested in Borno over “Tinubu Must Go” T-shirts, declaring: “Tinubu must go.”
