Political Showdown: Atiku Dares Tinubu on $460k Forfeiture, Citing China Standard
Atiku Abubakar has issued a sharp rebuke to the Presidency, challenging its use of China as a benchmark for accountability. He questions the administration's own record, particularly concerning a $460,000 forfeiture, under the strict standards China applies to drug trafficking and corruption. Atiku urged the government to focus on Nigeria's pressing economic and security challenges instead of engaging in what he described as diversions.
In a strong rebuttal to the Presidency, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, criticized the administration for carelessly introducing China into a debate on accountability. Atiku noted the irony of the Presidency presenting a routine United States government reply as a 'certificate of innocence' while its spokesman invoked China as a benchmark, stating it took 'a peculiar kind of unintelligence' to inadvertently implicate its own principal.
Atiku highlighted China's severe penalties for drug trafficking, including death, arguing that the Presidency, by choosing China as its yardstick, unwittingly invited Nigerians to scrutinize its own standards. He firmly asserted his own record, declaring he has 'never been indicted or convicted by any court in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world for corruption, narcotics offences or, indeed, any criminal offence whatsoever,' emphasizing this as an 'incontrovertible matter of public record.'
The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) challenged the Presidency to apply the same Chinese standard to the case involving the $460,000 forfeited to the United States government in a civil forfeiture proceeding, which was alleged to be connected to narcotics trafficking and money laundering. He stressed that China, known for its uncompromising stance on narcotics-related offences and public accountability, would view such a forfeiture not as an end to scrutiny but often as its beginning.
Furthermore, Atiku urged the Tinubu administration to reflect on China’s approach to corruption and abuse of office. He contended that 'Not in China would a President sign into law a national budget immersed in scandals, padding and duplicitous appropriations,' nor would a President 'look the other way while a senior presidential aide faces grave allegations of creating a fake government agency.' He also criticized the administration for campaigning on 'Renewed Hope' but delivering 'renewed hardship,' asserting these issues demonstrate why the Presidency should have been more circumspect before invoking China.
The former Vice President also dismissed the Presidency's 'brandishing the United States Government’s reply to its diplomatic correspondence as though it were a judicial acquittal,' clarifying that such correspondence is routine between sovereign governments and not a court judgment or declaration of innocence. He underscored the principle that 'Those who invoke China must be prepared to accept the Chinese standard—not selectively, not rhetorically, but completely.'
Concluding his statement, Atiku Abubakar urged the Tinubu administration to prioritize 'confronting the economic hardship, rising hunger, insecurity and institutional decline afflicting Nigerians' rather than creating 'diversions that collapse at the slightest contact with the facts.' He called for an elevation in the quality of public communication, reminding that while propaganda might dominate a news cycle, facts ultimately prevail.