Unemployment: You are part of the rot, Femi Adesina hits back at Atiku

Mr Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, says former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is part of the rot of the country.

In his reaction to Atiku’s recent comment on the Buhari presidency, Adesina said Atiku cannot “wash himself clean of what Nigeria has become.”

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Atiku, who was presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019, had said under Buhari, Nigeria is heading to a failed state.

Arguing that Buhari lacks the capacity to govern the country, Atiku had said Nigerians must help the government to save themselves.

Atiku also criticised some of the policies of Buhari, saying the level of unemployment is unprecedented.

But responding to Atiku when he featured on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Adesina said, “You will recall that in the build-up to the 2015 elections, when the APC was campaigning, the figure that was used by then candidate Buhari was that a minimum of 30 million Nigerians were unemployed, particularly youths and that his government was going to do something about it.

“That was in 2014/2015. So, don’t make it appear like a genie that just came out of the bottle. No, it had always been there. It had always been there.

“The former Vice-President was in power for eight years. Now, he is in the opposition. You can’t take whatever he says as the gospel. The question is when former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was in government with President Olusegun Obasanjo, where did they take the country?

“Where did they leave the country? I have seen clips on social media where he said some things they promised to do, particularly on power; some people collected some trillions and didn’t deliver… Former Vice-President is part of the rot this country became.

“He cannot exculpate himself; he cannot sit in judgment over anybody. He played his part for eight years and they left the country where they left it. He cannot like Pontius Pilate, begin to wash himself clean of what Nigeria has become.”