Stop groping in the dark, Atiku tells Tinubu

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has asked President Bola Tinubu to show a clear direction of his government and stop groping in the dark.

Atiku stated this in his New Year message to Nigerians on Monday.

“The government must show a clear direction of its policy projections and desist from the subsisting behaviour of groping in the dark,” he said.

President Tinubu had earlier in his New Year broadcast to the nation, urged his political opponents to work with him since elections are over.

“In this new year, let us resolve that as joint-heirs to the Nigerian Commonwealth, we will work for the peace, progress and stability of our country. I extend this call to my political opponents in the last election. Election is over. It’s time for all of us to work together for the sake of our country,” the president said.

Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in last year’s election won by President Tinubu, said 2023 was a challenging year but that the lessons taken away from it should prepare Nigerians for the new year.

Read Atiku’s full statement

PRESS RELEASE

My 2024 New Year Message To Nigerians

It is with great adulation to God and a heart full of gratitude that I join other patriots to welcome Nigerians to the New Year 2024.

The past year was definitely a challenging year, but the lessons that we took away from it are what should prepare us for the future that the New Year holds.

It is my belief that one of the reasons the Almighty created time and season is for us to take stock of our realities and effect necessary amends.

Certainly, many families and businesses already know the intensity of the trying times that we are currently going through – though we could have taken a completely different pathway, had the government been smarter with their policy prescriptions.

The rising cost of food items, goods and services, the malfunction in our national economy and the degenerating state of our national and community security are all existential challenges that we have to face squarely in the New Year.

While many companies have closed their operations in Nigeria and moved their enterprise elsewhere with clearer policies and visions, the situation of life for Nigerians keeps getting direr.

To walk back from these throes of adversities will require a well-thought vision of National Planning that will deliberately make the common people of Nigeria the centrepiece of our development.

The Year 2024 is still new on its canvas; and so, there is ample time for the current government to champion a pathway to addressing the acute hardship that Nigerians are going through.

The government must show a clear direction of its policy projections and desist from the subsisting behaviour of groping in the dark.

While I congratulate all Nigerians for witnessing this New Year, I also wish to call on everyone to double our efforts to put our respective families and businesses in good shape.

Atiku Abubakar
Waziri Adamawa
Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007.
31st December, 2023.