Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the Presidency for comparing his record with China’s legal system, saying the argument has only renewed attention on President Bola Tinubu’s past legal controversies.
The 2027 African Democratic Congress presidential candidate described the Presidency’s response as a political miscalculation, arguing that China is known for imposing harsh penalties on serious drug-related offences.
The exchange followed an earlier response by the Presidency to reports that a group linked to Atiku had petitioned the United States government over Tinubu’s 1993 civil forfeiture case and other matters.
Responding through his spokesman, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku accused the Presidency of avoiding the real issues while resorting to personal attacks.
“When governments abandon facts for insults and substitute evidence with abuse, they unwittingly admit that they have run out of convincing answers.
“Nigerians expected clarification. What they received instead was a barrage of name-calling and political invective,” the statement read.
In a fresh statement issued on Saturday, Atiku said the Presidency had unintentionally exposed Tinubu to greater public scrutiny by invoking China’s legal standards.
“It takes a peculiar kind of unintelligence for a spokesman to set out to drag an opponent before a hypothetical Chinese court, only to end up dragging his own principal into the dock.
“Perhaps, the spokesman did not realise that the maximum penalty under Chinese law for the most serious drug trafficking offences is death. Having chosen China as his benchmark, he unwittingly invited Nigerians to examine the very standard he thought would embarrass Atiku Abubakar,” the statement read in part.
The former vice president maintained that he has never been found guilty or charged by any court over corruption, narcotics offences or any criminal matter.
“The facts are neither complicated nor disputable. Atiku Abubakar has never been indicted or convicted by any court in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world for corruption, narcotics offences or, indeed, any criminal offence whatsoever. That is an incontrovertible matter of public record,” Shaibu said.
Atiku also argued that if the government wished to use China as a standard for accountability, Nigerians were equally entitled to ask how Chinese authorities would have handled “a case involving $460,000 forfeited to the United States Government in a civil forfeiture proceeding concerning funds alleged to be connected to narcotics trafficking and money laundering.”
He added that China’s legal system is widely recognised for its strict approach to drug-related offences and public accountability.
“China is renowned for its uncompromising approach to narcotics-related offences and public accountability. It is not a jurisdiction where the forfeiture of suspicious proceeds ordinarily marks the end of official scrutiny. More often than not, that is where scrutiny begins,” the statement added.
The ADC leader also criticised the Tinubu administration over governance, claiming that allegations involving budget irregularities and abuse of office would have attracted immediate action under China’s system.
“Not in China would a president sign into law a national budget immersed in scandals, padding and duplicitous appropriations. Not in China would a President look the other way while a senior presidential aide faces grave allegations of creating a fake government agency. Not in China would a government campaign on Renewed Hope only to deliver renewed hardship to its citizens,” he stated.
He further dismissed the Presidency’s reliance on correspondence from the United States government, insisting it should not be interpreted as proof that Tinubu had been cleared of wrongdoing.
“The Presidency should also stop brandishing the United States Government’s reply to its diplomatic correspondence as though it were a judicial acquittal. Diplomatic correspondence between sovereign governments is routine. It is neither a judgment of a court, nor a declaration of innocence, nor an instrument for rewriting history,” he said.
Atiku urged the Federal Government to channel its attention toward tackling insecurity and the country’s economic challenges instead of engaging in political exchanges.
“The Tinubu administration would do better to devote its dwindling political capital to confronting the economic hardship, rising hunger, insecurity and institutional decline afflicting Nigerians instead of manufacturing diversions that collapse at the slightest contact with the facts,” he added.
The latest war of words stems from remarks by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, who defended Tinubu and criticised Atiku’s record in public office.
“Nigerians have not forgotten the legacy of the privatisation programme under Atiku’s watch as vice president. He presided over an egregious privatisation heist, selling national assets to cronies for peanuts and causing thousands of job losses and unpaid salaries and pensions that President Tinubu is clearing today.
“A man with such a dismal record as a public servant certainly has no business asking for our votes. Indeed, if Atiku Abubakar were a Chinese, he would be rotting away in jail for his crimes against the Nigerian people,” Onanuga wrote.