{"id":943,"date":"2026-10-24T19:19:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T19:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/24\/kaduna-rally-atiku-challenges-tinubu-over-hunger-hardship\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T19:19:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T19:19:40","slug":"kaduna-rally-atiku-challenges-tinubu-over-hunger-hardship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/24\/kaduna-rally-atiku-challenges-tinubu-over-hunger-hardship\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaduna rally: Atiku challenges Tinubu over hunger, hardship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kaduna<\/p>\n

By Luminous Jannamike<\/p>\n

Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has challenged President Bola Tinubu to explain what his administration has done to end hunger and poverty, following the President\u2019s claim that the opposition created the problems.<\/p>\n

Atiku said Nigerians were more concerned about the government\u2019s record than its attempts to shift responsibility, insisting that the 2027 presidential election would put Tinubu\u2019s handling of the economy and security under scrutiny.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Saturday by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Atiku accused the President of blaming his political opponents for hardship that had worsened under his watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr President, blaming the opposition for hunger is either delusion or a staggering case of political amnesia. The APC governed Nigeria for eight years before you took office. You have added another three and a half years. Nigerians know who has been in power, and hardship did not begin when the opposition started talking about it. Stop insulting their intelligence and answer for your record,\u201d Atiku said.<\/p>\n

On the economy, the ADC candidate challenged Tinubu to account for the consequences of petrol subsidy removal, the naira\u2019s depreciation and rising poverty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich administration removed the petrol subsidy and watched the naira fall from about \u20a6471 to \u20a61,329 to the dollar?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Atiku also questioned the government\u2019s handling of public finances and the country\u2019s poverty levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich administration has presided over a rise in poverty that led the World Bank to estimate that 63 per cent of Nigerians will be below the national poverty line in 2026? Which administration extended the 2024 budget into 2025 while also operating a separate 2025 budget?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

He further demanded explanations for what he described as questionable public spending, citing energy security expenditure, NNPC pipeline-related spending and charges associated with an Abu Dhabi financing facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich administration recorded \u20a67.13 trillion under \u2018energy security\u2019 in 2024 and faces questions over \u20a611.2 trillion in NNPC pipeline related spending? Nigerians deserve to know who received these sums and what was delivered,\u201d Atiku said.<\/p>\n

He also questioned the country\u2019s external accounts and the charges associated with the financing facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich administration must explain the $12.4 billion gap flagged in Nigeria\u2019s external accounts for the first half of 2026? Which administration paid $22.5 million in \u2018other charges\u2019 on the Abu Dhabi financing facility?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

On security, Atiku faulted the administration over persistent killings, kidnappings and displacement, demanding answers from the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich administration is responsible for the killings, kidnappings and displacement that continue to terrorise communities? These are the questions Nigerians are asking while your government blames the opposition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Atiku also criticised Tinubu\u2019s commissioning of the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway from inside a stadium, arguing that the ceremony did not establish that the project had been completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour decision to commission the unfinished Abuja to Kaduna Expressway from inside a stadium shows how far removed you are from the daily reality of Nigerians. A road cannot be completed with a speech or a ribbon-cutting ceremony,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Returning to the central issue, Atiku said the government could not avoid accountability by blaming political opponents for describing the hardship Nigerians were experiencing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot govern for three years, make life harder, and then blame others for describing the hardship. You asked who created the hunger. Nigerians are asking what you have done to end it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the 2027 presidential election would test Tinubu\u2019s record against the experiences of Nigerians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people will judge your government by the lives they are living, not by the excuses you offer at campaign rallies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2027 presidential election will be a referendum on your record. Nigerians have felt the cost of your leadership in their homes, markets and communities. Their verdict is already clear: they have rejected your administration,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The post Kaduna rally: Atiku challenges Tinubu over hunger, hardship<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Luminous Jannamike Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has challenged President Bola Tinubu to explain what his administration has done to end hunger… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":944,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}