Atiku slams presidency for downplaying hunger, insecurity in Nigeria

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that Nigeria does not need explanations for suffering but solutions to the current challenges facing its citizens.

In a statement issued on Wednesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the Waziri of Adamawa condemned what he described as the Presidency’s latest attempt to blame the media for the worsening insecurity and economic hardship in the country, calling it a dangerous exercise in denial by an administration increasingly detached from the realities facing ordinary Nigerians.

Atiku said it was both astonishing and insulting that, at a time when millions of Nigerians are struggling to survive, the Tinubu administration had chosen to attack the messenger rather than confront the message.

He warned that governments often lose touch with reality when they become more concerned with managing narratives than solving problems.

“There is an old African proverb that says a man who covers his eyes cannot stop the sun from rising. Denial does not change reality. It merely postpones solutions.”

“The latest comments from the Presidency reveal a disturbing disconnect between those who govern and the people they govern. Nigerians are enduring one of the most difficult periods in our recent history, yet instead of acknowledging their pain and outlining practical solutions, the government is attempting to persuade citizens that what they see, hear, and experience every day is somehow an illusion created by the media.”

According to him, Nigerians do not need journalists to tell them whether they are hungry.

“The father who goes to bed wondering how to provide the next meal for his family does not need a newspaper report to confirm hardship. The mother who now pays three or four times more for basic food items than she did two years ago does not require a television broadcast to understand inflation. The small business owner whose capital has been wiped out, the graduate trapped in unemployment, and the pensioner whose savings have become worthless do not need media interpretation to understand their circumstances.”

The former Vice President said hunger has become one of the defining features of the Tinubu administration.

“Across the country, families are skipping meals, withdrawing their children from school, abandoning healthcare, and making impossible choices between transportation, rent, food, and medicine.

“To suggest that this suffering is exaggerated is to mock the lived experiences of millions of Nigerians. It is to tell citizens that their empty pockets, unpaid bills, and empty kitchens are products of imagination.”

On insecurity, Atiku said the Presidency’s attempt to shift blame to the media was even more reprehensible.

“The media did not invent the killings in Benue State. The media did not invent the massacres in Plateau State. The media did not invent the bandit attacks in Zamfara State, Katsina State, and Niger State. The media did not invent the abduction of schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo State. The media did not invent kidnapping-for-ransom, which has become one of the country’s fastest-growing criminal enterprises. The media did not invent terrorism, nor did it create the criminal gangs that continue to terrorise communities and disrupt economic activities across the nation.”

He noted that insecurity is not measured by government press releases but by the lived realities of citizens.

“The farmer who cannot access his farmland because armed men have taken over his community does not need media validation. The trader who fears travelling on Nigerian highways does not need a newspaper headline. The parents who send their children to school with anxiety over the possibility of abduction do not need television analysis to understand the security situation.”

Atiku also expressed alarm at what he called the Presidency’s apparent justification of insecurity by suggesting that many kidnapping incidents occur because citizens fail to heed police advisories against travelling at night.

“That argument is not only troubling; it is an indictment of the government itself. Is the Presidency admitting that Nigerians can only be safe for a few hours of the day? Is this an official declaration that Africa’s largest economy has been reduced to an eight-hour economy where citizens must shut down their businesses, abandon legitimate travel, and retreat indoors once the sun sets?

“The primary duty of any government is the protection of lives and property. Citizens do not surrender their freedoms in exchange for curfews imposed by fear. A trader travelling from Kano to Lagos, a businessman returning from Abuja to Kaduna, a farmer transporting produce to market, or a family embarking on a legitimate journey should not be blamed when criminals attack them. The blame belongs squarely where it should — on those charged with securing the country.

“By that flawed logic, if armed robbers strike during the day, should Nigerians be advised not to leave their homes at all? If kidnappers attack on a highway, should the solution be to stop using the highway rather than securing it? Governance cannot be reduced to issuing warnings while criminal elements take control of public spaces.

“What Nigerians expect from their government is not an endless stream of advisories but decisive action. The measure of a secure nation is not how effectively citizens can avoid danger, but how effectively the state can eliminate it.”

The former Vice President said it is dangerous for any government to normalise insecurity by shifting responsibility to citizens rather than confronting the criminals responsible for it.

“A nation cannot prosper when its people are told that safety ends at sunset. Economies grow because people can move freely, trade freely, and conduct lawful activities without fear. Once a government begins to rationalise insecurity instead of defeating it, it has effectively lowered the standard of governance and diminished the expectations of the people.”

He said the role of the media in a democracy is not to praise those in power but to hold them accountable.

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“The media exists to report facts, amplify public concerns, and give voice to citizens. Blaming journalists for reporting insecurity and hardship is like blaming a thermometer for a fever.”

The former Vice President said Nigerians themselves are the most credible witnesses to the failure of the Tinubu administration.

“The verdict on this government is not being written in newspaper headlines. It is being written daily in markets where families can no longer afford food, in factories that have shut their gates, in communities abandoned to criminals, and in homes where parents struggle to provide for their children.”

Atiku said the administration’s failures are hidden in plain sight.

“They are visible in the astronomical cost of living. They are visible in the soaring prices of food, transportation, electricity, and cooking gas. They are visible in an energy sector that delivers darkness at ever-increasing costs. They are visible in the collapse of purchasing power and the steady erosion of hope among ordinary citizens.”

He questioned the moral basis of a government that blames the media for exposing the consequences of its own policies.

“When this administration awarded a ₦2 trillion agricultural mechanisation contract to a controversial Belarusian businessman who publicly claims to be President Tinubu’s classmate, did it invite the media into the room before signing the deal? When food prices skyrocketed, was it the media that raised them? When the naira collapsed, was it the media that devalued it? When insecurity spread across communities, was it the media that armed the criminals?

“The truth is simple: the failures of this administration are rooted in the outcomes of its policies, not in the reporting of those outcomes. It is therefore both irresponsible and insensitive to blame the media for conditions created by government decisions.”

“Nigeria does not need explanations for suffering. Nigeria needs solutions. Nigeria does not need lectures about perception. Nigeria needs results.”