From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has alleged plans by the President Bola Tinubu administration to unleash a regime of propaganda on the country in the days ahead.
Atiku, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, yesterday, said the “fake news” about the lifting of the visa ban by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was just a “tip of the iceberg.”
Atiku, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, claimed that President Tinubu has already appointed over 15 media aides to dish out propaganda as a policy of state and distract Nigerians from the deep pains his administration has caused them.
“From information available to us, Bola Tinubu is set to push propaganda to overdrive as he heads out for the United Nations General Assembly. He will claim to have attracted foreign investments amounting to $100 billion but will fail to provide key details. It is all propaganda. It is all a load of baloney.
“In India, he claimed they had received pledges of over $14 billion just as his predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, claimed in 2018 that he had secured pledges of up to $6 billion. This is nothing but audio investments.
“Last month, the NNPC claimed to have obtained a loan of $3bn with which it would help stabilise the naira. We raised the alarm that it was all a ruse to deceive Nigerians. Now, we have been justified as the naira is now approaching $1/N,000 on the black market.
“After his trip to the UAE, Tinubu claimed the visa ban had been lifted immediately. Now, they have shifted the goalpost after the UAE authorities revealed that the news was false. This is the sort of embarrassment Nigeria will continue to attract in this season of balablu.
“The report by FTSE revealed that Tinubu’s so-called FX unification policy was failing and Nigeria was degraded from frontier market to unclassified. Having failed to bring economic rebirth, he has now recruited over 15 media aides instead of recruiting more economic experts.”
Atiku added that “ it was laughable that Tinubu, who vowed to hit the ground running from the first day, had held only one cabinet meeting since his inauguration nearly 120 days ago.
“Tinubu removed petrol subsidy without any plan whatsoever and decided to hand over a few bags of rice to millions of poor Nigerians. Till date, the minimum wage remains N30,000 or $31 per month based on the parallel market exchange rate.
“In the meantime, we ask Nigerians to remain patient as the judicial authorities do their job in righting the electoral fraud that has brought Nigerians to their knees.”
