Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has told President Bola Tinubu that Nigerians elected him to end, or at least, reduce poverty in the country and not increase it.

Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential election, was reacting to Tinubu’s Sallah day comments that Nigeria was not the only country undergoing poverty and suffering, urging Nigerians to stop complaining.

Tinubu, who gave the admonition when he recieved a delegation of members of the National Assembly led by its leadership, Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, Deputy Senate President, Senator Jibrin Barau and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Benjamin Kalu.

While addressing the delegation who came to felicitate with him on the occasion of Eid-el-Kabir, Tinubu said:

“Yes, there is poverty; there is suffering in the land. We are not the only people facing such but we must face our challenges,” the President said.

“We must find a way to eliminate banditry and terrorism so that farmers can bring out food from the farmlands.

“If you do not have good roads to bring the food to the population, even if you grow the food and you are losing 60-70 per cent to damage, you will pay the price,“ he added.

But the comments from President Tinubu has continued to elicit strong criticism from Nigerians who believe the President should concentrate on revamping the economy instead.

In his reaction to the comments, Atiku said Tinubu was elected to tackle, instead of amplifying poverty, and should stop making excuses for inflicting multidimensional poverty on Nigerians.

In a statement through his Special Adviser, Paul Ibe, Atiku said:

“There’s a saying that the baby goat watches the mother goat eating grass and consequently learns to eat grass.

“There are little or no values nurtured and promoted by Tinubu and his administration. What Nigerians are seeing manifest is insensitivity, bigotry, nepotism, corruption, and wastefulness.

“For the President to speak about us finding a way to eliminate banditry and terrorism is an acknowledgement of failure.

“What we expect to hear from him are the measures and the strategy to deal with the menace and not to regale us with the problems we are all well aware of.

“The poverty in Nigeria is multi-dimensional. It was exacerbated by the policies of the Tinubu administration that did not prioritise production and cutting costs.

“Policies that were not well-thought-out and are only aimed at pauperizing the citizens. Tinubu’s trial-and-error policies have continued to dig the country deeper into economic degradation.

“His government is characterised by a lack of transparency and accountability. For example, his administration is paying for subsidy, contrary to the claims that it is gone for good.

“According to his minister of finance, last year (the very same year they allegedly stopped payment of subsidy), Tinubu paid a subsidy of N3.6 trillion and this year, he is projected to pay a subsidy of N5.4 trillion.

“Why are they lying about this other than to divert money away from the federation account? Truth be told, Tinubu is the one causing the deepening poverty in the country.

“May be this administration needs to be reminded that it was elected to reduce if not eliminate poverty, hunger and disease but what we have seen is an obsession with opulence.

“We are yet to get over the billions appropriated for the renovation of the President and Vice President’s lodges, now we hear they want new jets to join the Presidential fleet.

“Our schools and health institutions are on their knees, the same government claims it cannot afford to pay public servants a living wage but has enough to make itself comfortable at the expense of the suffering masses.

“Mr. President, we implore you to uphold the constitution you swore to protect. The constitution says the security and welfare of the populace shall be the primary purpose of the existence of your government. Enough of this mockery.”