The Presidency on Sunday attacked former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, saying he is part of the rot the nation has become.
The presidency was reacting to comments made by Atiku over huge cases of unemployment in Nigeria and for saying that Nigeria is fast degenerating to a failed state.
According to Atiku, “I have never felt so bad at being proven right, as I am by the report from Bloomberg Business on Saturday, March 27, 2021 that Nigeria is to emerge as the nation with the highest unemployment rate on Earth, at just over 33%.
“We warned about this, but repeated warnings by myself and other patriots were scorned. And now this. We are at a precipice as a nation and the truth is that all stakeholders and elder statesmen have to speak up on time, while there is still a Nigeria to save.
“This government obviously lacks the capacity to address our current challenges, and we must help them, not because of the government, but because of our people.
“In a situation where we are simultaneously the world headquarters for extreme poverty, the world capital for out of school children, and the nation with the highest unemployment rate on Earth, there is a very real and present danger that we might slip into the failed states index – God forbid!”
Speaking in an interview on Channels TV Sunday Politics, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina said what Atiku said about 30 million Nigerians out of job was not new.
He said in the build-up to the 2015 elections, when the APC was campaigning, the figure that was used by Buhari was that a minimum of 30 million Nigerians were unemployed, particularly youths and that his government was going to do something about it.
He said that was in 2014/2015, saying that Atiku should not make it appear like a genie that just came out of the bottle, as the statistics had always been there.
Adesina stated that Atiku was in power for eight years, saying that now that he is in the opposition, one could not take whatever he said as the gospel.
He said the question is “when Abubakar was in government with President Olusegun Obasanjo, where did they take the country? Where did they leave the country?”
Adesina added that he had seen clips on social media where Atiku said some things they promised to do, particularly on power; and that some people collected some trillions and didn’t deliver.
“Former Vice-President is part of the rot this country became. He cannot exculpate himself; he cannot sit in judgment over anybody. He played his part for eight years and they left the country where they left it,” he said.
According to him, Atiku could not like Pontius Pilate, begin to wash himself clean of what Nigeria has become.
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