Presidency Slams Atiku Over “Military Era” Comparison, Accuses Former VP of “Senile Dementia”
The Presidency has launched a scathing verbal attack on former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, describing his recent comparison of the Bola Tinubu administration to a military dictatorship as a “willful distortion of history” and a symptom of a “slide into senile dementia.”
The rebuke, issued on Wednesday by Sunday Dare, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Communication, came in response to comments made by Atiku on Tuesday in Abuja.
While speaking at a book launch for the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the former Vice-President had characterized the current All Progressives Congress (APC) government as “the worst administration I have witnessed in nearly four decades of political life,”
He added that even past military dictatorships had not damaged the nation’s consciousness to the same extent.
In a statement titled “Re: Tinubu’s Government a Dictatorship—Atiku Abubakar’s Cognitive Dissonance,” Dare dismissed Atiku’s claims as reckless and insulting to the memory of those who suffered under actual military regimes.
“For a man who once occupied the office of Vice President under a constitutional democracy, Atiku Abubakar’s persistent inability, or refusal, to distinguish between democratic governance and military dictatorship is no longer ironic; it is alarming,” Dare stated.
He argued that Atiku’s freedom to criticize the President, convene political meetings, and grant interviews without fear of arrest or exile stands in sharp contrast to the realities of military rule.
“To sanitise that era simply because he is now a serial electoral loser reveals a conscience corroded by desperation,” the Presidential aide added.
At the event on Tuesday, Atiku had called for a convergence of political forces to “rescue” Nigeria, expressing regret over the performance of the APC, a party he noted many of those present had helped to form.
“Not even the military dictatorships before 1999 damaged our national life and consciousness in the way this administration has done,” Atiku asserted, urging Nigerians to build a credible political alternative.
Dare characterized Atiku’s remarks as the “flailing of a man watching his relevance evaporate.” He accused the former Vice-President of equating the economic adjustments of Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope” reforms with military repression, suggesting that Atiku’s only ideology is “unfulfilled ambition.”
“If he cannot rule, he would rather delegitimise the democracy that rejected him. At this stage, Atiku Abubakar is less an elder statesman than a cautionary tale… His cognitive dissonance is no longer a national issue; it is a personal implosion unfolding in public,” Dare wrote.
The exchange marks another chapter in the deepening political rift between the Presidency and the opposition figure, who has remained a vocal critic of the administration since the 2023 general elections.
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