The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has said that adherence to human rights principles under President Bola Tinubu’s government is far better than the Obasanjo/Atiku administration, in a swift response to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s recent criticism.
Describing as dishonest and deceitful Atiku Abubakar’s claims that the human rights situation under the Tinubu administration was akin to the military era, the group stated that Tinubu’s record so far is unassailable and above board.
In a statement signed by its Chairman Emeka Nwankpa and Secretary Dapo Okubanjo, TMSG noted that the government in which Atiku Abubakar was number two was more dictatorial than any government since 1999.
The group said: “Of course, we were not surprised that the former vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has adopted launching of series of unmerited attacks on the President Bola Tinubu administration in his hollow pastime, prancing around the political space to seek for a sixth bid for the presidency.
“But like all his previous efforts, the latest dig at the President is not only devious but also cynical especially as he claimed that the human rights credentials of the Tinubu administration ‘surpasses even the harshest days of military dictatorship.'”
“It is unbelievable that a supposed elder statesman who once claimed he had to flee into exile during one of the country’s military regime could be so disingenuous to attempt to package a lie and sell to Nigerians for inordinate political ambition.
“Anyone that was even a teenager during the military era, will easily recall how the country was awash with real, not imagined, stories of missing activists, reporters and in some cases politicians as well as the detention of people without trial, not to talk of cases of scary assassinations that are unresolved till date.
“In fact, we make bold to say that the military-era trend dovetailed into the post-military years of the Olusegun Obasanjo Administration in which Atiku Abubakar was a key player and enforcer as Vice President.
“There was no record of complaints from Atiku on the spate of arbitrary arrests and detention of Nigerians for more than a year, in some cases. The likes of Gani Adams, Frederick Fasehun, and even Asari Dokubo were held for months before being charged to court.
“Atiku was a key player in a government that arbitrarily deposed state governors at will and even orchestrated the abduction of a governor, Dr. Chris Ngige in a Gestapo manner, in a clear breach of democratic ideals.
“There was also the invasion and devastation of Odi and Zaki Biam communities in Bayelsa and Benue states respectively on the watch of Atiku Abubakar and his boss, in a manner not only unprecedented in Nigeria’s democratic history but which outraged global community. Not even in the giddy days of the military did the country witness such a peace time devastation of lives and property.
“Senate Presidents were changed like diapers at the behest of the Obasanjo/Atiku Presidency like no other administration ever dared. This is the same man who is comparing the Tinubu administration to a military regime!”
The group also accused Atiku of being antagonistic to the efforts by security agencies to stem the tide of insecurity in the country by making false and wild claims on recent activities of the Department of State Service (DSS).
“For the avoidance of doubt, security operatives did not raid the offices of Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) or any civil society organization, contrary to suggestions by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar
“It is a fact that aside from the DSS, the National Civil Society of Nigeria (NCSCN), has also debunked the false narrative that the former Vice President and his media team relied on to make wild claims against the Tinubu administration.
“As for the issue of President of the Nigeria Labour Congress Joe Ajaero, we wonder how a man who is still holding on to the hope of being President would set out to demonize security operatives for doing their job.
“Nigerians now know that the Labour leader was never detained, and neither was he with the DSS beyond the hours the laws allowed compared with what Nigerians saw in the years that Atiku was Vice President.
“More shocking is that he also used the issue as an opportunity to mock ongoing efforts by our gallant men and women in the security agencies to make the country safer,” it added.
TMSG urged Nigerians to continue to see a trend of attacks by the former Vice President and his team as a sign of frustration because of his constant rejection by the Nigerian people. sensibility
The Democratic Front (TDF) has described the proposition of N250 per litre as price for fuel by the Peoples Democratic Party PDP as a mockery of national sensibility.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Mallam Danjuma Muhammad and Secretary, Chief Wale Adedayo, the group said the party’s proposal of N250 a litre for locally refined fuel is a reflection of the extent it could go to play politics.
The statement read in part: “In strong terms, we condemn the statement credited to the the National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Debo Ologunagba, wrongfully alleging that the policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu were draconian and bringing Nigerians on their knees.
“We consider the statement as reckless, careless, and irresponsible, because it mocks and insults the sensibility of Nigerians in view of the pillaging and devastation of the nation’s economy by the former ruling party through monumental embezzlement and misappropriation of national resources. The despoil and waste that the PDP erected was the edifice of economic woes and hardship that the current administration is trying to correct.
“It is important to inform Mr. Ologunagba and his paymasters that the economic reforms of President Tinubu are not responsible for the hardship Nigerians are faced with, rather, the 16 wasteful years of the PDP during which $16 billion dollars, amongst others, was filtered away on elusive power supply.
“There is also the corrupt ring-fencing of several state- owned companies and investments by PDP stalwarts, in a dubious privatization exercise that bloated Nigeria’s unemployment market to an alarming level, as well as the total neglect of critical infrastructures at the expense of productivity and economic prosperity.
“History holds that three PDP-led administrations had the benefit of selling crude oil more than any other Nigerian government, at various times of global oil boom with high and favourable market price.
“Unfortunately, the former ruling party did not use the tremendous revenue from crude oil sale to address the nation’s poverty, invest in agriculture, or even improve the country’s infrastructural deficit.
“For the entire period of 16 years that the party held the saddle of political leadership in Nigeria, state-owned refineries were in comatose and were allowed to corrode under a system that reeks of pervasive corruption.
“It is public knowledge that Nigeria lost trillions of naira in series of Turn Around Maintenances (TAM), deliberately designed by the PDP to entrench the wasteful habit of importation of petroleum products into Nigeria, with untold consequences on our foreign exchange earnings.
“Till date, Nigerians have yet to know the truth about the $ 20 billion that NNPC failed to remit to the Central Bank of Nigeria under the last PDP regime, a revelation which cost Sanusi Lamido Sanusi his job as Governor of the Central Bank at the time.
“The racket of subsidy regime under the PDP was so rife in reflating subsidy figures to consume the Nigeria’s oil proceeds, to the extent that the party left almost two years of subsidy arrears unpaid.
“The Muhammadu Buhari led APC administration eventually paid over N500bn as subsidy to fuel importers, for petroleum products supply to resume in August 2015.
“Even though the price of petroleum/litre was relatively low under the PDP, Nigerians suffered from the agonizing impact of acute shortage of petroleum products throughout the period.
“PDP’s legacy of electoral fraud and political corruption was legendary. It stagnated economic growth in the country and subjected Nigerians to the evil of bad governance at all tiers. The party is known to have exploited the power of incumbency to rig every election for its candidates in a brazen breach and disregard for the Electoral Act and the Constitution.
Debo Ologunagba and his colleagues in PDP should be informed that these are the factors absolutely responsible for the hardship Nigerians face today.
“The evolution of hike in fuel price in Nigeria from 1973 shows that the PDP- era recorded the most hike of ten consecutive times. The same political party now finds the impudence to mock the nation’s sensibility by criticizing the Tinubu administration on a market forces- influenced increase in the pump price. This is unacceptable.
“What could be more laughable as the party’s recent proposal of N250/litre of petroleum products, which literally exposed its hypocrisy and paucity of knowledge about the country’s oil sector.”
TDF urges Nigerians to ignore the PDP and what it describes as its archaic antics to grab power at all costs.
