The Tinubu Campaign Group has lampooned the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar for telling several ‘lies’ during his recent interview on Arise TV Interview.
The group, in a statement signed by its DG, Bayo Onanuga, described Atiku as an ‘expert’ in telling lies.
Below are 5 lies the group alleged that Atiku stated during the viral interview;
RECORD OF SERVICE/WEALTH
The statement read in part; “We have watched Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s interview on ARISE Television and were extremely shocked by the many lies and ignorance displayed by the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.
“In the interview, Alhaji Atiku exposed himself as a man who is not prepared for the job he is applying for and a man who cannot be entrusted with our commonwealth. He was flippant in his response to important questions about his record of service and how he made money while serving in Customs. He muddled up facts and exhibited befuddling absence of mind,”
“The PDP candidate is a law breaker,”
“He cheated the system for decades and engaged in gross misconduct as a government worker. As a customs officer at the Idi-Iroko border, Atiku revealed that he ran a commercial taxi service, claiming ‘there is no law stopping public officers from doing business in Nigeria.’ He punched harder, claiming there is no conflict of interest in doing so. We found this to be untrue.”
“Every officer in the civil service is expected to comply with a code of conduct and service rules which bar civil and public servants from engaging in private business while in government employment to the detriment of the service he/she is employed to render to the public. The 1999 constitution further codifies this in Part I, Fifth Schedule, Section of 2 (b).”
“It says a public officer shall not, except where he is not employed on full-time basis, engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade. The rules, however, allow a public officer to engage in farming.”
“We wonder which rule or which law Atiku was relying upon for his gross misconduct as a public officer. It is our considered view that Atiku gamed the system all through his career in public service, culminating in his founding of the Intel Logistics along with Late Shehu Yar’Adua and some Italians, even while he was still in the employment of the Nigeria Customs Service.”
ECONOMY
The Group further criticised the PDP presidential candidate had poor knowledge of key sectors of the economy and accused him of citing false data from Egypt.
“We also found it surprising that the PDP presidential candidate does not know the contribution of oil and gas industry to Nigeria’s GDP. He claimed the sector represents 20% of our national GDP whereas it is below 10 per cent and it is still falling owing to the growth of non-oil sector under the current All Progressives Congress led administration of President Muhammadu Buhari”.
“Atiku Abubakar wanted to impress his audience with his supposed knowledge of international affairs, he ended up embarrassing himself with false data he cited from Egypt. We found his claim that Egypt has 2 million police officers on the streets to be untrue. Various sources put the number at about 500,000 for a population of 104 million and not 80 million as falsely claimed by Atiku.”
ROTATIONAL PRESIDENCY
The statement continued: “Asked to justify why the PDP jettisoned Section 3c of its own constitution which enshrines power rotation between the North and South, Atiku tried to fudge his answer by focussing on Governor Nyesom Wike and his effort to reconcile with him after he, a northerner, snatched the presidential ticket that ought to have been taken by a southerner. While Atiku was playing to the gallery on APC’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, he didn’t see seeking to be President after 8 years of a President from his part of Nigeria as politics of exclusion.”
“Probed further, Atiku provided several contradictory answers. In one breath, he said power rotation is not in the constitution. In another breath, he said the PDP has never ‘micro zoned any position’. Then he admitted that the party has always rotated power between the North and the South. Atiku’s justification as to why he became PDP’s presidential candidate, instead of a southerner, is a perfect example in ellipsis: ‘In politics’, he said, ‘we negotiate power through negotiations (sic)’. Whatever that means.”
MUSLIM-MUSLIM TICKET
The statement read in part; “Atiku, ever an expert in not telling the truth, also did not come clean over his once-upon a time preference for same-faith ticket. In 1993, after Atiku and Kingibe lost to MKO Abiola in the SDP presidential primary in Jos, Atiku was the choice of the Yar’Adua camp to become Abiola’s running mate. Abiola overlooked him and picked the more cerebral diplomat and bureaucrat, Babagana Kingibe. In all the tonnes of biographies written about him, there was no where he said he opposed Shehu Yar’Adua’s support for his candidacy as Abiola’s VP. He was not against it, since it favoured him. Now, it is politically convenient and opportunistic for him to oppose Tinubu-Shettima ticket.”
LINCOLN/NUMBER OF TIMES HE RAN FOR OFFICE
“Most reprehensible was Atiku’s lies about how many times he ran to become the governor of Adamawa or old Gongola State. Mr. Presidential candidate, in case you don’t know due to your limited education, you run for an office, only, when you are on the ballot in an election. Your signifying interest in an office does not mean the same as running for the office. From available records, the first time you contested the governorship election in your state was in 1999. Your name entered the ballot for the first time and you won.”
The organisation further derided Atiku, saying he “exhibited poor Knowledge of history when he claimed that Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s famous leaders contested the presidency five to six times before he eventually won.”
“This is a beer parlour tale that has been recycled over time. Lincoln contested U.S. presidency twice. He ran in 1860 and 1864 and won both, before he was assassinated on 15 April, 1865. The false story about Lincoln’s failed presidential bids sprang from his previous failed state and national elections, from his state of Illinois. They were not the same as America’s presidential election.”
“According to historians, Lincoln lost his first election in 1832 for Illinois state legislature. In 1834, he ran again and won. In 1843 he ran for Congress. He lost. Three years after in 1846, Lincoln ran for Congress again – this time he won and went to Washington. From established history, in 1848, Lincoln ran for re-election to Congress and lost. In 1854, he ran for Senate of the United States. He lost. Lincoln also made another failed bid for U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1858. He lost to Democrat Steven Douglas.”
HE ALSO CLAIMED TO HAVE RUN A TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS BETWEEN THE SEME IDI-IROKO BORDER TO THE HEARTH OF LAGOS.
What he FAILED to tell us was that he ran a SMUGGLING ring of CONTRABANDS between the countries around the borders of Nigeria and into the hearth of Lagos with the Peugeot vehicles he purchased from CFAO. Mind you, CFAO has since defunct and the words of Atiku Abubakar cannot be verified and or fact checked.
THE Turaki AND Waziri SEEM HALF SMART AND INSENSIBLE TO ASSERT THE LEAST. AN UNFORCED ERROR OF MADERN AGE.
THE Waziri DID NOT RUN TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS BETWEEN Okokomaiko Mile 2 axis INTO THE HEARTH OF LAGOS. INSTEAD, DID HIS SMUGGLING BUSINESS BETWEEN THE BORDERS AND NIGERIA.
He may have unwittingly unknowingly let us into the ILLEGALITY perpetrated with official government business. Which amount to deficit in of ethics.
THE Waziri SHORTCHANGED NIGERIA AND GOD MADE HIM SPILL THE BEAN.