Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has thrown down the gauntlet to President Bola Tinubu, daring him to produce concrete evidence of any wrongdoing in the controversial $16 billion power sector expenditure.
In a statement released on Wednesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku accused the Tinubu administration and its allies of dredging up old allegations to divert attention from growing public questions over the management of funds saved from the removal of petrol subsidy.
Atiku, who chaired the National Council on Privatisation during his time as Vice President, insisted he never oversaw the actual implementation of the power projects. “The National Assembly investigated the power projects. I was never invited to answer any allegation of wrongdoing,” he said. “The responsible minister did. The same applies to the Aluminium Smelter matter.”
He stressed that he left office in 2007 and has spent much of the intervening years in opposition. “I have repeatedly asked to be investigated. If there is evidence that I stole public money, why has no government produced it before a court? It is still not too late. Investigate me. Invite me. Produce the evidence. Prosecute me if you have a case. But propaganda cannot substitute for evidence.”
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate linked the renewed attacks to his consistent criticism of the economic fallout from subsidy removal. Nigerians were promised that ending the subsidy would free up resources for development, yet the reality, according to Atiku, has been higher costs of living.
“Today, petrol is more expensive, transportation is more expensive, food is more expensive and the purchasing power of the Nigerian worker has been devastated,” he stated. He further questioned the fate of increased government revenues, pointing to fiscal incentives, waivers, tax credits and concessions still enjoyed by powerful economic interests.
“So our question remains brutally simple: where is the people’s money?” Atiku asked. He accused the administration of hypocrisy for withdrawing relief from ordinary Nigerians while defending benefits for the well-connected as “incentives.”
Dismissing what he described as sponsored social media attacks, Atiku vowed that the allegations would not silence him. “The people who removed subsidy from the poor cannot frighten us into silence by resurrecting allegations that governments with all the investigative machinery of the Nigerian state have had nearly two decades to establish,” he declared.
“If you have evidence against Atiku, bring it. If you have a case, prosecute it. But if you have neither, stop manufacturing distractions and answer Nigerians: You removed the subsidy. You collected the savings. Where is the money?”
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