APC lambasts Atiku, Amaechi, and El-Rufai for “baseless” poverty claims, accusing them of seeking power for self-gain after benefiting from past “rent-seeking” economic systems

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has launched a scathing attack on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and former governors Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) and Malam Nasiru El-Rufai (Kaduna).

Also read: Presidential aide claims Atiku’s political ambitions crumbling amidst defections

The ruling party described their recent allegations of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration “weaponising poverty” as baseless and hypocritical.

The trio had, at Amaechi’s 60th birthday anniversary celebration in Abuja over the weekend, accused President Tinubu of failing to eradicate poverty in the nearly two years since his administration took office.

In a strong rebuttal, APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka stated that the trio should be “ashamed” for failing to achieve similar feats during their combined quarter-century in power.

He described them as “leading displaced rent-seekers” whose criticisms stemmed from a “frenzied desperation to grab power purely for their self-aggrandizement.”

Morka’s statement highlighted the extensive political careers of the three individuals: “These three individuals have occupied Nigeria’s highest political offices between 1999 and 2023, either as vice president, governors, or ministers, among other important positions. In all 24 years, the trio, individually or collectively, could not and did not eradicate poverty in their states or the country. They did not even attempt to address, let alone tackle, the structural challenges and distortions that stifled the economy and worsened poverty over the years.”

These three individuals have occupied Nigeria’s highest political offices between 1999 and 2023… In all 24 years, the trio, individually or collectively, could not and did not eradicate poverty in their states or the country.

Instead, Morka accused them of engaging in “mindless rent-seeking behavior, sold national assets to their cronies for mere pittance, engaged in corrupt and wasteful expenditures in their states, and relentlessly sponsored state violence against their own people.”

Singling out the celebrant, Amaechi, Morka noted his “unbroken total of 24 years – eight years as Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, eight years as Governor of Rivers State, and eight years as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

He asserted that Amaechi’s declaration of “I am hungry” should be interpreted as hunger and desperation to “return to his felt entitled dependency on state resources and patronage.”

Morka argued that the opposition figures’ allegations were driven by their loss of grip on an economy they had “fleeced on for years.”

He maintained that Tinubu’s “unprecedented reforms” were compelling them to adapt to a new reality that rewards “hard work, productivity, and innovation.”

The APC spokesperson squarely blamed the “failure of previous administrations, particularly 16 years of PDP administrations,” for the economic conditions of poverty, citing the “artificially overvalued Naira” that stifled local production and encouraged import dependency.

He also pointed out the perceived hypocrisy of Atiku and Peter Obi, who he claimed “amassed their wealth from the very import-dependent system they are desperately trying to preserve.”

The APC commended President Tinubu’s resilience and political will in tackling structural barriers to economic growth, asserting he has done “far more than any other President in Nigeria’s modern history.”

The party stated that Tinubu’s reforms are “systematically building the most potent bulwark against poverty and positioning the economy to deliver sustained and sustainable growth and prosperity for all Nigerians.”

The party concluded by assuring Nigerians that the President would not be distracted by “selfish partisan rambling of some hardened political opportunists and economic exploiters only bent on preserving the old inefficient and permissive economic system that fed them at the expense of the common good of all.”