Atiku Abubakar Laments Growing Economic Hardship and Insecurity

The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has called on the Federal Government to prioritize fixing the severe economic hardship, rampant insecurity, and crushing cost of living plaguing the nation.

Reacting to recent comments from the Presidency defending Nigeria’s mounting debt profile by comparing it favorably to other African nations, the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar slammed the administration for being deeply detached from reality. In a press release issued on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku stated that the government’s attempt to paint the borrowing situation in a positive light was a massive insult to citizens who can barely get by.

The opposition leader stressed that any responsible government loan utilization must be strictly tied to productive investments that directly boost national infrastructure, agriculture, security, and long-term economic growth. Instead, he argued, citizens are seeing absolutely no positive connection between the rising national debt and their daily quality of life.

“It is both astonishing and insulting that at a time when millions of Nigerians can barely afford one meal a day… the Presidency is celebrating debt figures as though indebtedness itself were an economic achievement,” the statement read. Atiku further pointed out that traveling by road across Nigeria has become an absolute gamble with death due to unchecked banditry and kidnappings. He noted that widespread insecurity has systematically forced farmers off their lands, directly causing the current hyperinflation in food prices.

Reminding the current administration of the economic triumphs of the Olusegun Obasanjo era—which successfully secured historic debt relief and restored global investor confidence—Atiku urged President Bola Tinubu’s government to immediately abandon political propaganda. He insisted that instead of focusing on public relations and statistical gymnastics, the administration must deploy genuine competence, urgency, and compassion to stabilize the country’s crashing economy before it collapses into further social unrest.