The former Vice President made this appeal via a statement released by his Special Assistant on Public Communications on Sunday, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, saying that voting for Tinubu will amount to moving the country’s socioeconomic situation from frying pan to fire.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has advised Nigerians against voting for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu in the February 25 election.
The former Vice President made this appeal via a statement released by his Special Assistant on Public Communications on Sunday, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, saying that voting for Tinubu will amount to moving the country’s socioeconomic situation from frying pan to fire.
Shaibu stated, “It is one week to the election, and expectedly, campaigns have reached fever pitch. But amid the excitement and tension, voters must guard their hearts jealously as the ruling APC will try to use every subterfuge and stratagem in its manual to deceive them once more. These last days are similar to the end time predicted in the Holy books.
“Nigerians must not let themselves be deceived by this ‘corn-man’ selling renewed hopelessness disguised as renewed hope. Your hope will be stolen from you if he is allowed to govern Nigeria. That indeed will be a state of hopelessness – hell on earth, frying pan to fire.”
The statement went on to say that as part of the grand deception, Tinubu, who began his campaign in the middle of last year promising to continue President Muhammadu Buhari's "impeccable legacy," has been promising to reverse them in the last three weeks.
He, therefore, asked Tinubu to decide whether he was running on Buhari's legacy or against it in order not to mislead innocent voters.
Shaibu continued, “Tinubu says the petrol scarcity and the naira shortage are aimed at scuttling his ambition. Later, he and his acolytes said they were only voicing out against the policy out of sheer concern for the masses. These are people who never muttered a word when students spent 10 months at home in 2020 and eight months at home in 2022 due to unprecedented university lecturers’ strike.
“These are people that never criticised the President at the height of the insecurity when schoolchildren were being abducted almost on a daily basis and when the naira witnessed a free fall that led to a sharp increase in the prices of goods.
“Tinubu has been campaigning like a drug Lord from Paranquuilla, Columbia. He has been very pugnacious, believing that his bullion vans stashed with old Naira notes can deliver the votes to him.
“Someone needs to tell Tinubu and his band of APC governors to please give up this irritating ostentatious performance of moral propriety. They are not angry about the naira redesign because they love the masses. They are only angry that their plan to unleash bullion vans on poor Nigerians has been thwarted.”
Shaibu claimed that if Tinubu becomes Nigeria's president, he will turn the country into his personal fiefdom and a one-party state by silencing the opposition, as he has done in Lagos since 1999.
He went on to say that Tinubu would use the National Assembly as a stepping stone and orchestrate the fall of the Fourth Republic.
“Tinubu has turned Lagos State into his personal fiefdom by arrogating all powers to himself so much so that even the current Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, publicly refers to him as ‘my principal’, clear evidence that Tinubu is far above the constitutionally recognised authority in the state.
“To keep governors in check, he buys the loyalty of all 40 members of the Lagos State House of Assembly who openly sing the Tinubu anthem in the hallowed chamber. It is through the instrumentality of the House that he successfully impeached two of his deputy governors – Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele and Femi Pedro. It was also through this subservient House that Tinubu passed the obnoxious governors’ pension law that would see him earn more allowances than a former president.
“He has also infiltrated and bastardised every facet of Lagos society, including transport unions who openly extort money from transporters and shop owners with impunity because they have pledged their loyalty to him. He appointed his daughter, Folasade, as the Iyaloja-General of Lagos markets, giving her enormous powers to impose levies and shut down markets from all markets in the state. Traders who are not members of the ruling party are victimised.
“A firm reportedly owned by him, Alpha Beta Consulting, has for the last 20 years, maintained exclusive rights to generate taxes on behalf of the Lagos State Government.”
“This is how he has kept an entire state under his vice-grip, a modern-day Mafia boss. He hopes to impose a one-party system in Nigeria and plans to rule as a dictator with a subservient national assembly. God forbid BAT thing,” the statement added.
Shaibu claimed Tinubu's actions demonstrated his contempt for President Buhari and his office.
He claimed that in 2018, President Buhari and some northern governors personally petitioned Tinubu to allow Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to run for a second term, but Tinubu refused, publicly embarrassing the President.
“His gaffes at rallies and town halls also put his mental capacity to question. Muttering some unintelligible words at a town hall in Owerri last November, Tinubu stated, ‘This is a town hall different from Balabu blu blu, bulaaba,’” he added.