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Former vice president and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to abandon political grandstanding and focus on addressing the mounting failures of his administration, insisting that no amount of combative rhetoric can salvage a government that has lost the confidence of its citizens.
Atiku, in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, described President Tinubu’s declaration that he would “wrestle his opponents to the finish” as the rhetoric of a leader seeking to divert public attention from what he called the administration’s poor record in office.
According to Atiku, it was particularly disappointing that such a remark came in response to a solemn appeal by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria for peaceful, credible and transparent elections.
He said the president’s response reflected the aloofness that has come to define the administration and fell short of the restraint, humility and statesmanship expected during an engagement with one of the country’s most respected moral institutions.
“Rather than reassure Nigerians of his commitment to free, fair and credible elections, the president chose political bravado over presidential responsibility.
“Mr. President, you are not in a wrestling contest with the opposition. Wrestle with your failures, not your opponents,” Atiku said.
The former vice president argued that a president presiding over one of Nigeria’s most severe cost-of-living crises should be focused on defeating inflation, reducing hunger, restoring security, stabilising the naira and rebuilding public confidence in government.
“He should wrestle with the millions of Nigerians who can no longer afford three meals a day because food has become a luxury.
“He should wrestle with the insecurity that has turned farming communities into killing fields and highways into hunting grounds for kidnappers.
“He should wrestle with the unemployment that has robbed millions of young Nigerians of hope and opportunity.
“And he should wrestle with an economy weighed down by policy inconsistency, reckless borrowing and declining investor confidence,” Atiku said.
Atiku said governments that fail to deliver often resort to political theatre in an attempt to distract citizens from their hardships.
“These are the words of a government struggling under the weight of its own failures. When there is little to celebrate in governance, political chest-thumping becomes the preferred strategy.
“But Nigerians are no longer interested in empty rhetoric. They are interested in results. Slogans cannot put food on the table. Boastful declarations cannot reduce inflation or strengthen the naira. Threats against political opponents cannot improve the lives of ordinary Nigerians,” he said.
The former vice president maintained that President Tinubu’s greatest political challenge is not the opposition but the record of his own administration, adding, “His greatest opponent is his own performance. Every unemployed graduate, every struggling business, every victim of insecurity, every hungry family and every Nigerian battling the rising cost of living is a reminder of the consequences of this administration’s policies. That is the contest the president has yet to win.”
Atiku reminded the president that democracy is not a wrestling arena where intimidation determines the outcome, stressing, “Democracy is a contest of ideas, accountability and performance. Governments earn another term through competence, compassion and measurable achievements— not through combative rhetoric.
“In 2027, Nigerians will not step into a wrestling ring. They will step into polling units to render a constitutional verdict based on the government’s record.”
He urged President Tinubu to devote the remainder of his tenure to addressing Nigeria’s worsening economic and security challenges rather than manufacturing political confrontations.
Atiku said: “The Nigerian people are not looking for a wrestler; they are looking for a leader. History will not remember who issued the loudest threats. It will remember who governed with vision, competence and compassion.”
