Atiku’s penchant for playing to the gallery legendary, becoming an embarrassment-TMSG*

The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of impulsivity – almost always saying something without thinking or considering the vracity of such statements.

The TMSG, which is burdened by the impulsive tendency of the former president of rushing to the press to make grave accusations against President Bola Tinubu, cautioned that he should always process his thoughts before lashing out on the president

This was contained in a statement signed by the Chairman and Secretary of TMSG, Messers Emeka Nwankpa and Dapo Okubanjo, respectively, while reacting to Atiku’s ‘claims that the government is spending N5.4b on fuel subsidy this year.

“We are amused at the self-imposed opposition leadership Atiku has placed on himself. We would have had no qualms about it if he had been giving rational thinking to his claims. He has many times said those things that came to his mind only on impulse without fully processing those thoughts. These are unbecoming of someone who had occupied the exalted position of a vice president.

“The former vice president has a penchant for playing to the gallery, always jumping to conclusions on issues without the decency of determining the veracity of such claims.

“We are bored with the manner former Vice President Atiku Abubakar latched on to a media report of a N5.4tn expenditure on fuel subsidy for 2024 without considering the consequences of such weighty allegation.

“The perennial Presidential candidate must have seen the reports as yet another opportunity to demarket President Tinubu for denying him is life-long ambition but for us, it is yet another page from the Atiku playbook of political misadventure stretching back to when his former boss,former President Olusegun Obasanjo declared him unfit for public office.

“We would have expected someone who was Vice President for eight years to ponder on how the Tinubu administration could commit a figure that amounts to nearly 20% of the N28.7trn 2024 budget to subsidizing fuel without a provision for it in the same budget.

“We wonder what manner of statesman would regularly rush to the public with what he thinks is a silver bullet against a sitting president who has no time for distractions as he continues his nation-building efforts.

“And after his N5.4tn subsidy expenditure claim was shut down by Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, we were not surprised that he doubled down to accusing President Tinubu of diverting public funds without proof.

“This to us is a classic example of the idiom ‘misery loves company’. A man who has had several allegations of financial malfeasance trailing his time in government would always think that everyone is like him.

“It won’t be out of place for us to remind Nigerians how Atiku’s former Principal Olusegun Obasanjo in his book – ‘My Watch’ detailed some ‘corrupt involvement’ of the former vice president with a certain Mr William Jefferson, a former US lawmaker, who was later jailed for 13 years.

“Is it not a statement of fact that former President Obasanjo, in chapter 36 of the book, linked Atiku Abubakar to the embezzlement of $20m which his administration was supposed to deploy for Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), and another $125 million to fund PTDF during 2003 fiscal year?

“Let Atiku Abubakar contest these claims if they are not correct rather than beating about the bush raising spurious claims against President Tinubu.

“So it should be expected that a politician with such baggage would assume that anyone within the corridor of powers in Aso Rock would be involved in diversion of public funds.

“And lest we forget, former Obasanjo described his former deputy,Atiku Abubakar, as a ‘shameless liar during the launch of that book in 2014 in Lagos. He is yet to contest these allegations.

“On the economy, Alhaji Atiku claimed that President Tinubu is running it by trial and error and we recollect how he recommended the Argentina model as a better option that will bail out Nigeria economy, but the fact, today, is that Nigeria is in a better placed situation than Argentina which has an inflation rate of 287%.”

TMSG urged Nigerians to see the former Vice President’s tirades against President Tinubu as what it is-politics with bitterness.