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Atiku to Tinubu: What’s there to envy in you – wickedness, stinking reputation?
“Wickedness is an exclusive preserve of Tinubu, and no compassionate leader who truly cares about the wellbeing of Nigerians should be jealous of what is an exclusive preserve of T-Pain.”
Thes were the exact words with which Atiku Abubakar, clapped back on President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, less than 24 hours after he accused him of envy for succeeding at the nation’s number one job, he craved but failed to clinch on six different occasions, which he attained at the first try.
Tinubu, as candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had triumphed over Atiku, Nigeria’s former Vice President, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25, 2023 presidential election, concerning him to the second position.
Against the backdrop of Tinubu, making an issue of the victory via a statement by Bayo Onanuga, his spokesman and practically shoving the feat in the face of the former VP, Atiku, pushed back via a statement by Phrank Shaibu, his own spokesman, insisting that the President’s chest-beating amounted to nothing because the said feat, brought nothing but sorrow to Nigerians in the end.
Besides, he raised other aspects, which he said equally rubbished Tinubu’s claim to better fortunes, alluding to the issue of the controversy arising from his (Tinubu’s) forfeiture of money to the US authorities that raged before and even after the 2023 election.
Dismissing Tinubu’s claim as worthless, he also accused the President of achieving nothing with his office outside bogus words directed at his political opponents, including Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), who came third in the said election.
The statement, said: “Atiku is not a bigot, refunded money to the US for alleged drug trafficking. Tinubu’s economic policies and approach to governance is killing Nigerians, and this should be his focus rather than attacking the opposition which is not in the saddle.
“On July 8, 2024, Tinubu announced that import duty on essential goods like food would be lifted for 150 days. But over 120 days later, the policy is yet to take off, while Nigerians continue to die daily due to increasing costs, including food inflation, which now exceeds 40%, the highest in decades.
“The brazen disobedience to a government policy by Tinubu’s appointees and the failure of the finance ministry to issue a gazette after over four months reflects the fatuousness, inanity and the incompetence that characterizes the Tinubu administration.
“Sadly, rather than focus on governance, they are preoccupied with verbally assaulting their opponents – Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi – while using compromised courts to foster crisis in the opposition. What a shame!
“Tinubu’s abysmal performance in the last 18 months has made it clear to all Nigerians that he came into office unprepared, hence the many policy flip flops that has so far characterised his tenure.
“Tinubu was obviously unprepared for office. He acts first and thinks of the consequences afterwards. This was why he announced an abrupt removal of petrol subsidy without any cushions.
“After seeing the effect, he then hurriedly decided to push a CNG initiative, which even he and his ministers have not embraced, hence their refusal to use it.
“The CNG initiative has so far failed to fully kick off because of a lack of gas infrastructure in most states. The result is that transport costs continue to soar along with prices of food.
“In his mid-term expenditure framework, he projected the exchange rate at N700/$1 in 2024 and N650/$1 by 2025.
“Rather than sack his economic advisers, he continues to live in a fool’s paradise, deceiving Nigerians about the FX reserve of $40bn when, in fact, the net reserves are less than 20% of that. Let the CBN release its financial statements of 2023 if he is sure of his achievements.”
Atiku, who described as unfortunate the emergence of a new terrorist organisation known as Lakurawa in the North, amid existing Boko Haram (ISWAP), bandits and other terror groups in the country, argued that coupled with the incessant grid collapses in the north due to the activities of criminal elements, Tinubu ought to focus more on improving security, which is a sine qua non for investments.
Accusing the President of deciding to play politics with security by appointing his kinsmen in top security and economic positions, Atiku, said: “Even on the economy, he put his kinsmen in every key position beginning from finance minister, trade and investment, CBN, customs and FIRS. Even President Muhammadu Buhari was not this brazen. Unlike Tinubu, Atiku is not a bigot. He has also not refunded money to the United States for alleged drugs trafficking.”
He regretted that despite a huge revenue challenge, Tinubu commits over $13 billion to the controversial Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, rendering scores of Lagos residents homeless just to please his associates while other pressing matters are starved of funds.
Stressing that Nigerians had grown tired of his administration, barely two years left in office, the ex-VP admonished the President to focus on improving the lives of the people, adding: “It is ludicrous to claim that Atiku is jealous of Tinubu. Hell no, Atiku cannot be jealous of Tinubu inflicting pains on Nigerians.
“Wickedness is an exclusive preserve of Tinubu and no compassionate leader who truly cares about the wellbeing of Nigerians should be jealous of what is an exclusive preserve of T-Pain. It is disheartening that during the last protests, some frustrated young Nigerians were waving Russian flags and calling on the military to take over.
“God forbid we return to those dark days, but leaders must not push their citizens to a point where citizens choose fire over frying pan. Nigeria is currently the worst performing currency in Africa and is now the 5th largest economy on the continent, falling from first when the failure called APC took over in 2015. Most Nigerians are at their wits’ end, not knowing where their next meal will come from. This should be Tinubu’s biggest concern instead of fiddling while the country burns.”
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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