TDF to Tinubu: Do not be distracted by Atiku’s visit to Daura

The Democratic Front (TDF) has called on Nigerians to see the recent visit by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to former President Muhammadu Buhari as a mere attention seeking ploy.

It said Atiku had never had any kind words for Muhammadu Buhari and the visit was just a desire to be noticed.

The group made the call on Wednesday in a statement signed by its Chairman and Secretary, Mallam Danjuma Muhammad and the Secretary Chief Wale Adedayo, respectively.

It urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to look away from the unnecessary distraction, adding that Atiku Abubakar was merely fishing for compliments with the hope of keeping himself in the public eye.

The group said the visit was aimed at creating an incitement, some unusually unpremeditated actions, and disruptive political controversy to heat up the stable polity.

“We can recall how after his 2019 defeat in the hand of the former President, Atiku had held the former president with disdain, never saying any good thing about the Buhari administration.

“We also know that there is no record of him paying Sallah homage to the former President in or out of office so Nigerians are right to suggest that the former VP was either being controversial to provoke attention or was pursuing an ulterior political agenda, which for now is known to only himself.

“And let us not forget how Atiku, through his media handlers, recently described Buhari’s handling of the economy in derogatory terms and accused President Bola Tinubu of toeing a similar path.

“It is because of Atiku’s inclination for public attention in the course of his inordinate ambition that we call on President Tinubu and his political appointees to ignore and dismiss the mischievous intent that the visit by the former Vice President to Daura may generate. It is, at best, a flutter of an attention seeking political opportunist.

“Although it is true that Atiku Abubakar has the constitutional right to move freely and visit anybody of his choice, we believe that the controversy he sought to stir with the visit shows how low the former Vice President is willing to go, in pursuit of selfish political aggrandizement.

“We consider it a sad commentary and a degeneration in the essential qualities of statesmanship for a former Vice President to now recline into the use of regional and ethnic sentiments in a desperate bid to govern at all costs.

“This is perfidious against the Nigerian State and proof that Abubakar is not worthy of any high office in Nigeria again.

“We believe that politics, like every other adventure, has its own time and season.

“With one year in office of an elected democratic administration headed by President Bola Tinubu, the government and people of Nigeria should be preoccupied with the onerous task of building a strong nation where equality and economic prosperity will be guaranteed for the citizenry, rather than hibernate in a perpetually unproductive arguments and permutations on which part of the country should produce the president in 2027.

“Nigeria cannot afford such a distraction at this crucial and challenging moments of her national history.

“It is therefore unpatriotic and reprehensible for the former Vice President and his co-travellers to attempt to convert the optics of a private visit into a mischievous ploy for diverting the nation’s attention from important national issues to pedestrian frivolities.

“We, however, urge President Tinubu to remain focused on the implementation of his reform policies.

“His spirited efforts and determination to reduce the country’s infrastructural deficit by approving capital projects in different parts of the country, and opening up the economic space for multi dimensional prospects and opportunities, are being appreciated by many well meaning citizens of Nigeria.

“And these achievements shall be counted among the legacies of his presidency whenever posterity beckons.

“We therefore call on politicians in the country to desist from comments and actions that are capable of plunging the nation into chaos, this is because the ongoing permutations over the 2027 Presidential election, is unnecessary, premature, distractive and deceitful.

“The 2023 elections have since ended, and President Tinubu is currently engaged in the fundamental restructuring and reengineering of the economy to the benefit of all Nigerians.”

TDF also used the opportunity to rally support for the President Tinubu administration as it continues on the path of economic reforms.