The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has claimed that Nigerians were not thinking or considering making former Vice President Atiku Abubakar president at the 2027 general election.
The APC national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, who said this when he appeared on Channels Television’s current affairs programme, ‘Politics Today’, on Monday night, said if Atiku as vice president for eight years could not better the lots of Nigerians, there was nothing he can do again.
- ‘Nigerians Now Enjoying Low Food Prices’, Says Tinubu’s Adviser
- Heartbreak will help Arsenal’s Champions League charge — Arteta
“They did not eradicate poverty, end hunger, end insecurity, end anything suggestive of deprivation of Nigerians and then they handed it over to another government that governed for eight years. They also did not eradicate poverty. So, when people sit down and begin to make these sorts of statements that are provocative, it’s really wrong and it’s very unfortunate,” he said.
Morka was reacting particularly to a statement by Atiku also on Monday that more than two years into President Bola Tinubu’s administration, there was still no indication that he can effectively tackle the widespread hunger and poverty affecting the country.
“Now, I’m not going to dwell on the Atiku’s statement. I think that Nigerians are watching. And I don’t believe that Nigerians are paying attention to what he says because they know why he says them. He is desperate for power.
“He thinks that by vilifying government, by making these false statements, that Nigerians will wake up tomorrow and make him president. Nigerians have rejected him so many times. But actually, I don’t think these Nigerians are thinking, considering of making an Atiku president.
“So the man needs to rest. He served Nigeria as he did.
But I think today, he has become, quite frankly, irrelevant to any consideration of prosperity for the future of our country,” the APC spokesperson said.
Morka defended Tinubu’s policies, saying despite their momentary negative consequences on the citizens, they were already yielding results and the country was gradually getting better.
He said the circumstances were “simply the failure of those who came along earlier. To do what had to be done…what you saw at the peak was the peak of inflation that resulted momentarily from certain policies that had to be implemented. And which this president found courage to implement.
“The Jonathan government, and all of the governments before Jonathan, had operated an economy that was phantom.That’s how I describe it. Phantom because nothing about that economy was real. So, it was a fake economy that Buhari walked into. Buhari was a correctional president. He came in to try to hold still events and trends that were sitting right on the edge of the precipice.
“Buhari came to hold so that Nigeria does not tip over as the PDP at the time, over 16 years, had pushed this country back. So Buhari was actually a stabiliser. He came to keep Nigeria still. And he did that because no one, if you were president, following up on Jonathan, I bet with all your knowledge and your goodwill, you will not have solved even just a small aspect of the humongous mess that was made.
“This government is really taking an economy that was in tatters, and began to renovate, to reconstruct the economy at its foundations. The economy today is standing on solid ground.”