₦airaland Forum

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Thursday lamented that ransom payments have become as routine a household expense for Nigerians as school fees and rent.

He slammed the President Bola Tinubu administration for celebrating debt statistics while the country bleeds from a security and economic crisis of devastating proportions.

Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, was responding to recent comments from the Presidency suggesting that Nigeria’s borrowing level compares favourably with some African countries.

According to him, the comparison exposed a dangerous disconnect between those in power and the grinding realities faced by ordinary Nigerians every day.


“It is both astonishing and insulting that at a time when millions of Nigerians can barely afford one meal a day, when parents are withdrawing children from school because of crushing hardship, when businesses are collapsing under unbearable electricity tariffs and inflation, and when entire communities are being overrun by terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers, the Presidency is celebrating debt figures as though indebtedness itself were an economic achievement,” he said.

The former vice president painted a harrowing picture of a country where road travel has become a gamble with death, where families go to bed dreading midnight calls about abducted loved ones, and where villages are sacked with disturbing regularity while those in power remain consumed by image management.

“In many parts of Nigeria today, travelling by road has become a gamble with death. Families go to bed praying not to receive midnight calls announcing the abduction of loved ones. Villages are sacked almost routinely while those in power appear more concerned about image management than decisive action. What exactly are Nigerians benefiting from all these loans if insecurity continues to spread and the economy continues to suffocate?” he queried.

Atiku argued that the insecurity crisis had directly collapsed food production, with farmers driven off their lands by armed gangs and terrorists across vast territories, triggering the spiral of food scarcity, hunger, and malnutrition that Nigerians are now living through.


“Across the country, farmers can no longer safely access their farmlands because vast territories have effectively fallen under the control of armed gangs and terrorists. Food production has declined sharply because rural communities now live under constant threat of attacks, abductions, and killings. The inevitable result is what Nigerians are currently witnessing — astronomical food prices, widespread hunger, malnutrition, and rising anger among citizens abandoned by their own government,” he stated.

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The Waziri Adamawa acknowledged that borrowing is not inherently wrong when tied to productive investments that expand infrastructure, create jobs, and improve lives. But he insisted that under the Tinubu administration, unprecedented borrowing had produced nothing but deeper poverty, deeper insecurity, and deeper despair.


“No nation becomes prosperous by borrowing to finance consumption, sustain wasteful government lifestyles, and paper over policy failures. Countries that borrow responsibly do so to expand productivity, create jobs, secure critical infrastructure, and improve the welfare of their citizens. In Nigeria today, however, citizens see no correlation between the mounting debt profile and improvement in their daily lives,” he said.

He accused the administration of weaponising propaganda to distract Nigerians from the catastrophic consequences of its economic mismanagement, and recalled that the administration in which he served alongside former President Olusegun Obasanjo pursued disciplined economic reforms that freed Nigeria from the burden of Paris Club debt and restored global confidence in the country.

“It is therefore tragic that a government that inherited a struggling but manageable economy has plunged the nation into deeper debt, deeper poverty, deeper insecurity, and deeper despair within such a short period, yet still expects applause from suffering citizens,” Atiku said.

He dismissed the presidency’s debt comparisons as statistical gymnastics that no ordinary Nigerian has any use for, insisting that what citizens want to know is whether food is affordable, whether their children are safe, whether businesses can survive, and whether the future holds any promise.


“Nigerians do not care about statistical gymnastics from government spokespersons. They care about whether food is affordable, whether their children are safe, whether businesses can survive, whether farmers can return to their lands, and whether the future still holds any promise. Sadly, under this administration, the answer to those questions is becoming increasingly bleak,” he concluded.

Atiku urged the Tinubu administration to abandon propaganda and face the nation’s harsh realities with sincerity, competence, urgency, and compassion before Nigeria slips further into economic and social instability.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/05/ransom-now-item-in-nigerians-budgets-atiku/

Kidnapping being carried out by your Fulani brethren and you have never spoken directly to them to cease and desist because their actions favour your political machinations.

No solution from Atiku, only knows how to blame others for the evil his tribe is doing.

A quick glance at the permanent residents of Nairaland, yet always telling people to go get job.

Whenever there is either a positive or negative report about Peter Obi or NDC, simply check the first 5 comments. Likewise, whenever there is a positive or negative report about Tinubu or APC, check the first 5 comments as well.

This observation passes no judgement, it merely invites forum members to observe a noticeable pattern. However, watch the particular group of people that will immediately start foaming at the mouth over this simple remark.

Cyberterror:
Kidnapping being carried out by your Fulani brethren and you have never spoken directly to them to cease and desist because their actions favour your political machinations.

No solution from Atiku, only knows how to blame others for the evil his tribe is doing.

So if he is addressing his “Fulani brethren,” he should specially you before the discussion could hold? The level of desperation to manufacture outrage is honestly embarrassing.

I do not support Atiku’s ambition, but hypocrisy and selective outrage remain some people’s full-time occupation.

Thanks to PDAPC. From OBJ TO TINUBU!


🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

treesun:
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Thursday lamented that ransom payments have become as routine a household expense for Nigerians as school fees and rent.

He slammed the President Bola Tinubu administration for celebrating debt statistics while the country bleeds from a security and economic crisis of devastating proportions.

Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, was responding to recent comments from the Presidency suggesting that Nigeria’s borrowing level compares favourably with some African countries.

According to him, the comparison exposed a dangerous disconnect between those in power and the grinding realities faced by ordinary Nigerians every day.


“It is both astonishing and insulting that at a time when millions of Nigerians can barely afford one meal a day, when parents are withdrawing children from school because of crushing hardship, when businesses are collapsing under unbearable electricity tariffs and inflation, and when entire communities are being overrun by terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers, the Presidency is celebrating debt figures as though indebtedness itself were an economic achievement,” he said.

The former vice president painted a harrowing picture of a country where road travel has become a gamble with death, where families go to bed dreading midnight calls about abducted loved ones, and where villages are sacked with disturbing regularity while those in power remain consumed by image management.

“In many parts of Nigeria today, travelling by road has become a gamble with death. Families go to bed praying not to receive midnight calls announcing the abduction of loved ones. Villages are sacked almost routinely while those in power appear more concerned about image management than decisive action. What exactly are Nigerians benefiting from all these loans if insecurity continues to spread and the economy continues to suffocate?” he queried.

Atiku argued that the insecurity crisis had directly collapsed food production, with farmers driven off their lands by armed gangs and terrorists across vast territories, triggering the spiral of food scarcity, hunger, and malnutrition that Nigerians are now living through.


“Across the country, farmers can no longer safely access their farmlands because vast territories have effectively fallen under the control of armed gangs and terrorists. Food production has declined sharply because rural communities now live under constant threat of attacks, abductions, and killings. The inevitable result is what Nigerians are currently witnessing — astronomical food prices, widespread hunger, malnutrition, and rising anger among citizens abandoned by their own government,” he stated.

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The Waziri Adamawa acknowledged that borrowing is not inherently wrong when tied to productive investments that expand infrastructure, create jobs, and improve lives. But he insisted that under the Tinubu administration, unprecedented borrowing had produced nothing but deeper poverty, deeper insecurity, and deeper despair.


“No nation becomes prosperous by borrowing to finance consumption, sustain wasteful government lifestyles, and paper over policy failures. Countries that borrow responsibly do so to expand productivity, create jobs, secure critical infrastructure, and improve the welfare of their citizens. In Nigeria today, however, citizens see no correlation between the mounting debt profile and improvement in their daily lives,” he said.

He accused the administration of weaponising propaganda to distract Nigerians from the catastrophic consequences of its economic mismanagement, and recalled that the administration in which he served alongside former President Olusegun Obasanjo pursued disciplined economic reforms that freed Nigeria from the burden of Paris Club debt and restored global confidence in the country.

“It is therefore tragic that a government that inherited a struggling but manageable economy has plunged the nation into deeper debt, deeper poverty, deeper insecurity, and deeper despair within such a short period, yet still expects applause from suffering citizens,” Atiku said.

He dismissed the presidency’s debt comparisons as statistical gymnastics that no ordinary Nigerian has any use for, insisting that what citizens want to know is whether food is affordable, whether their children are safe, whether businesses can survive, and whether the future holds any promise.


“Nigerians do not care about statistical gymnastics from government spokespersons. They care about whether food is affordable, whether their children are safe, whether businesses can survive, whether farmers can return to their lands, and whether the future still holds any promise. Sadly, under this administration, the answer to those questions is becoming increasingly bleak,” he concluded.

Atiku urged the Tinubu administration to abandon propaganda and face the nation’s harsh realities with sincerity, competence, urgency, and compassion before Nigeria slips further into economic and social instability.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/05/ransom-now-item-in-nigerians-budgets-atiku/

The same Atiku that couldn't condemn the Extra Judicial killing of Deborah?

This is disheartening.

That's the master strategist legacy

Cyberterror:
Kidnapping being carried out by your Fulani brethren and you have never spoken directly to them to cease and desist because their actions favour your political machinations.

No solution from Atiku, only knows how to blame others for the evil his tribe is doing.

Your tinubu is the c in c of the Nigerian arm forces. What is stopping ✋️ him from arresting these "fulani brethren" you talked about, abi he's just a lame duckling.