Atiku’s Camp Replies Oshiomhole, Labels APC “Monumental Failure”
Atiku Abubakar’s political camp has launched a sharp rebuttal to Senator Adams Oshiomhole’s recent attacks, describing the comments as a smokescreen intended to deflect from what they call the All Progressives Congress’s (APC) disastrous track record.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by Phrank Shaibu, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku, the ex–vice president’s team accused Oshiomhole — a former APC national chairman — of “weaponizing noise to mask the catastrophic failures” of the ruling party.
Oshiomhole recently branded Atiku “a defection expert” after the former vice president formally registered with the African Democratic Congress (ADC), having left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In response, Shaibu argued that Oshiomhole lacks the moral authority to question Atiku’s leadership credentials.
He insisted that Nigerians deserve better than “empty rhetoric from a man who helped engineer the very party now being held responsible for the country’s decline.”
Highlighting what they see as APC’s structural and ideological collapse, Atiku’s camp contended that, under the party’s stewardship, “party supremacy died, dissent was criminalised, and institutions of state became partisan weapons.”
According to Shaibu, Oshiomhole’s critique is nothing more than a distraction from the APC’s “bruising legacy” — one that, in their view, has plunged Nigeria into one of its worst chapters in decades.
The statement further defended Atiku’s record, citing his service as vice president and chairman of the National Economic Council, where he claimed to have bolstered investor confidence, strengthened the private sector, and advanced reforms that reshaped Nigeria’s economic landscape.
Even though Atiku has never held the presidency, Shaibu argued, his development blueprint remains among the most coherent visions for Nigeria’s future.
Shaibu also took aim at APC’s capacity to govern, asking: “If the APC could not fix Nigeria after eight wasted years and nearly three years under President Tinubu, what moral authority does Oshiomhole have to comment on leadership?”
In closing, the statement urged Oshiomhole to “sit this one out,” framing him as a representative of a party that, in the eyes of Atiku’s camp, has betrayed the hopes of millions.
As defections and political realignments intensify ahead of the 2027 general election, the war of words between Nigeria’s leading political figures underscores deep frustrations with the ruling party — and growing public disillusionment with the current political establishment.
