PRESS STATEMENT

Mr Presidential candidate: Lincoln did not contest US Presidency five or six times, Takeaways from Atiku Abubakar bungled interview on ARISE Television


We have watched Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s interview on ARISE Television and were extremely shocked by the many lies and ignorance displayed by the Peoples Democratic Party's presidential candidate.

In the interview, Alhaji Atiku exposed himself as a man who is not prepared for the job he is applying for and a man who can not be entrusted with our commonwealth. He was flippant in his response to important questions about his record of service and how he made money while serving in Customs. He muddled up facts and exhibited befudling absence of mind.

Here are our takeaways from the bungled interview:

1. PDP candidate is a law breaker: It was most shocking Atiku admitted that he cheated the system for decades and engaged in gross misconduct as a government worker. As a customs officer at the Idi-Iroko border, Atiku revealed that he ran a commercial taxi service, claiming ‘there is no law stopping public officers from doing business in Nigeria". He punched harder, claiming there is no conflict of interest in doing so.

We found this to be untrue.

Every officer in the civil service is expected to comply with a code of conduct and service rules which bar civil and public servants from engaging in private business while in government employment to the detriment of the service he/she is employed to render to the public. The 1999 constitution further codifies this in Part I, Fifth Schedule, Section of 2 (b).

It says a public officer shall not, except where he is not employed on full-time basis engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade. The rules however allow a public officer to engage in farming.

We wonder which rule or which law Atiku was relying upon for his gross misconduct as a public officer. It is our considered view that Atiku gamed the system all through his career in public service, culminating in his founding of the Intel Logistics along with Late Shehu Yar’Adua and some Italians, even while he was still in the employment of the Nigeria Customs Service.

2. Poor Knowledge of key sectors of the economy: We also found it surprising that the PDP presidential candidate does not know the contribution of oil and gas industry to Nigeria’s GDP. He claimed the sector represents 20% of our national GDP whereas it is below 10 percent and it is still falling owing to the growth of non-oil sector under the current All Progressives Congress led administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

3. False Data from Egypt: Atiku Abubakar wanted to impress his audience with his supposed knowledge of international affairs. He ended up embarrassing himself with false data he cited from Egypt. We found his claim that Egypt has 2 million police officers on the streets to be untrue. Various sources put the number at about 500,000 for a population of 104 million and not 80 million as falsely claimed by Atiku.

4. Rotational Presidency: Asked to justify why the PDP jettisoned Section 3c of its own constitution which enshrines power rotation between the North and South, Atiku tried to fudge his answer by focussing on Governor Nyesom Wike and his effort to reconcile with him after he, a northerner snatched the presidential ticket that ought to have been taken by a southerner. While Atiku was playing to the gallery on APC's Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, he didn’t see seeking to be President after 8years of a President from his part of Nigeria as politics of exclusion.

Probed further, Atiku provided several contradictory answers. In one breath, he said power rotation is not in the constitution. In another breath, he said the PDP has never “micro zoned any position’. Then he admitted that the party has always rotated power between the North and the South. Atiku's justification as to why he became PDP's presidential candidate, instead of a southerner is a perfect example in ellipsis: “In politics”, he said, “we negotiate power through negotiations(Sic)”. Whatever that means.

Atiku ever an expert in not telling the truth also did not come clean over his once-upon a time preference for same-faith ticket. In 1993, after Atiku and Kingibe lost to MKO Abiola in the SDP presidential primary in Jos, Atiku was the choice of the Yar’Adua camp to become Abiola’s running mate. Abiola overlooked him and picked the more cerebral diplomat and bureaucrat, Babagana Kingibe. In all the tonnes of biographies written about him, there was no where he said he opposed Shehu Yar’Adua’s support for his candidacy as Abiola’s VP. He was not against it, since it favoured him. Now, it is politically convenient and opportunistic for him to oppose Tinubu-Shettima ticket.

5. Political Credentials: . Most reprehensible was Atiku’s lies about how many times he ran to become the governor of Adamawa or old Gongola state.

Mr. Presidential candidate, in case you don’t know due to your limited education, you run for an office, only, when you are on the ballot in an election. Your signifying interest in an office does not mean the same as running for the office. From available records, the first time you contested the governorship election in your state was in 1999. Your name entered the ballot for the first time and you won.

6. Poor grasp of history: Atiku Abubakar also exhibited poor Knowledge of history when he claimed that Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s famous leaders contested the presidency five to six times before he eventually won.

This is a beer parlour tale that has been recycled over time. Lincoln contested U.S. presidency twice. He ran in 1860 and 1864 and won both, before he was assassinated on 15 April, 1865.

The false story about Lincoln’s failed presidential bids sprang from his previous failed state and national elections, from his state of Illinois. They were not the same as America’s presidential election.

According to historians, Lincoln lost his first election in 1832 for Illinois state legislature. In 1834, he ran again and won.

In 1843 he ran for Congress. He lost. Three years after in 1846, Lincoln ran for Congress again - this time he won and went to Washington. From established history, in 1848, Lincoln ran for re-election to Congress and lost. In 1854, he ran for Senate of the United States. He lost. Lincoln also made another failed bid for U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1858. He lost to Democrat Steven Douglas.

Our conclusion is that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is ill-prepared to be President of Nigeria if he could bungle a Television interview that was planned well ahead of the day and time the duo of Dr. Reuben Abati and Ms.Tundun Abiola conducted it.

We expected the PDP presidential candidate to be well informed on any issue before coming on national television to expose himself to avoidable ridicule.


Bayo Onanuga
Director, Media & Communication
Tinubu Campaign Organisation
July 23, 2022

First to comment.
Anyway, anybody considering voting Tilumbu or Atiaku El Cameron, it will never be well with their unborn shildren.

Interesting

Nice 1. No put the take away for the regular plate coz e go small. Get those plastic ones wey big

Am I the only one that is having a feeling of deja Vu, like it's 2015 all over again.

A middle age southern Christian politician is contesting against an old politician that is giving us mouth watering promises, although this time there are two old politicians.

I would like to believe that Nigerians are wiser than they were in 2015.

Congrat

No candidate in this race understands the intricacies of Nigeria's problems more than Atiku Abubukar. It's easy to perform at state level, but the federal level is a different ball game. We have seen the latter swallow many politicians who did so well in their various states. A good example is Tunde Fashola who people thought was going to perform miracles when he got three big portfolios.

In my opinion, Atiku gave excellent responses - although they weren't as detailed as I expected. If Atiku goes on a debate with Peter Obi, he would do so well because he knows the problems and solutions. However, Atiku's biggest problem is that Nigerians don't trust him because he has been called unprintable names in the past. Secondly, he may lack the political will to implement the solutions as his allies or businesses will be hurt in the process.

E go be

Atiku was really calm, composed and articulate.
He gave reasonable ideas and viable solutions to pertinent questions.
Although I did not agree with some of his opinions but I was largely impressed.

I cannot wait to listen to Tinubu...and watch him sh!t on his agbada.

Take away. Jollof rice and coke

Interesting to know. Nigerians should be discerning in choosing their next leaders.

A thief will always remain a thief.

Peter Obi is all we want now.. Atikulate time don pass.

Meanwhile, Obi would have been the best VP for Atiku but he took the bold step and stand on his own and obviously it's paying him off. That's y sometimes it's good to take risk and damn the consequences.

Okay.

Atiku goofed, big time.

Let's wait for the Alágbàdo of Àgbàdo, Èmi lo kàn (I) of Ìrágbìjí Annex, Bourdillon Street, Lagos.

Our country is at a crossroad. The current govt structure have shown that they just don't only have nothing for Nigerians, they don't care about us. That is why the daily death occurrence in this country means nothing to them.


In the next election, our mission is to salvage Nigeria from the current govt structure.

No matter who you vote for, ensure it's not APC, let's rescue Nigeria from the current govt structure.

Trash, as usual. No go look for better job, Atiku matter kill u there.

Atikkui

Ok

Ok

Fascinating

Take away ko give away ni

A man told us that his mission is to make his FRIENDS RICH and the POOR POORER May we NOT have a coNFUSED CRIMINAL,a Cameroonian as our president

Atiku is ready to fight dirty
Shots fired

Life goes on

Sometime, Nigerians just like to criticize for criticism sake. Atiku responded well to those questions and as far as I’m concerned, his responses are balanced and unbiased. He gave simple solutions to underlying issues but it seems Nigerians need big grammar solutions to indicate if this person is fit or not. Good governance no be until u go havard go learn English.

Moreover, I think Nigerians are pushing their luck too far with our expectations. We’re demanding miracle that’s why we get scammed over and over again by religious leaders and politicians. They tell us what we ant to hear with little care of reality.

The reality is our leaders have little to do and can only take things step by step. Even with that, I don’t see Nigeria progressing because we Nigerians are natural evil people. We blame leaders for everything but they are just behavioural representations of the citizens.