The Presidency has taken up former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for waging what it termed a “campaign of calumny” against Nigeria’s economic progress under the Bola Tinubu administration.
In a strongly-worded statement issued yesterday, the special adviser to the president on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, accused Atiku of distorting facts and making “wild claims” aimed at discrediting the government’s genuine efforts to boost the economy.
Onanuga said contrary to Atiku’s claims, the Tinubu administration had attracted over $20 billion in foreign investments within its first year in office, including over $14 billion from Indian businesses during the president’s visit to New Delhi last August.
He cited the 415 percent surge in foreign investment in Nigeria’s stock market from N18.12 billion in Q1 2023 to N93.37 billion in Q1 2024 as an “unmistakable vote of confidence” in the administration’s economic reforms.
The presidential aide also pointed to the recent announcement by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte of a fresh $250 million investment by Dutch businesses in Nigeria during Tinubu’s trip to The Netherlands.
Onanuga lambasted Atiku for his alleged “hypocrisy” in accusing President Tinubu of conflict of interest over the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project awarded to Hitech Construction Company, citing the former vice president’s past business dealings while in office.
“Was this not an abuse of office, a flagrant violation of his oath, that a company where he was a co-owner won major government contracts and concessions when he was vice president?” Onanuga questioned.
The statement described as “strange” Atiku’s claims regarding President Tinubu’s son, Seyi’s involvement with CDK Integrated Industries Limited, stating that Seyi joined the board in 2018 and that the company’s ownership details are publicly available.
Accusing Atiku of waging a “campaign of calumny against the economic fortunes and prosperity of a country he wishes to govern,” Onanuga vowed that under Tinubu’s “progressive, bold, inventive, and innovative leadership,” Nigeria would bounce back as Africa’s largest economy, targeting a $1 trillion economy in the coming years.
According to him, “we wonder how Seyi’s membership of the board of CDK conflicts with Hitech Construction Company’s work on Lagos-Calabar Coastal superhighway.
“Alhaji Atiku has been waging an unrelenting war against this all-important and transformative project for no justifiable reasons other than bad politics.
“Atiku knows that its grand success and other projects to be unfurled, such as the Badagry-Sokoto superhighway, will be a major boost for President Tinubu and finally upend his perennial presidential ambition.
“If not blinded by political ill-will, Alhaji Atiku knows that the right thing for him to do is to applaud President Tinubu for the ambitious and audacious Lagos-Calabar Highway, which was authorised by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
“It is important to remind Alhaji Atiku that infrastructural projects such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway are used to galvanise the economy.
“In the US, President Joe Biden has used his $2 trillion bi-partisan infrastructure deal to revamp decaying American infrastructure and inject life into the US economy.
“How can an elder statesman be waging a campaign of calumny against the economic fortunes and prosperity of a country he wishes to govern or trying to scuttle a project that will bring prosperity to nine coastal states and the nation in general?
“That Nigeria’s economy is being reclassified by the IMF as the fourth largest in Africa is stale news. This happened because of the devaluation of the Naira and President Tinubu’s determined effort to set the economy on the path of sustainable growth.
“Under the progressive, bold, inventive, and innovative leadership of President Tinubu, Nigeria will bounce back to where it rightfully belongs as Africa’s largest market and biggest economy.
“The Tinubu administration targets a $1 trillion economy in the next few years, with audacious economic programmes and critical infrastructure projects in key sectors.
“With revenue rising in trillions and the creation of the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Fund, which is poised to raise over N20 trillion this year alone, we have no doubt that the $ 1 trillion economy is realisable,” he added.
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