Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has criticised former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar over his recent attacks on President Bola Tinubu and his administration.
In a statement on Friday, Keyamo accused Atiku, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, of suffering from “agitated depression” and said he needed urgent medical attention.
In recent weeks, Atiku has criticised the Tinubu administration’s handling of the gains from petrol subsidy removal.
In his latest remarks, Atiku faulted the Federal Government’s 30-day petrol discount at Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited filling stations, describing it as a “panic-driven publicity stunt”.
Speaking at the inauguration of the ADC presidential campaign council in Abuja on Friday, Atiku addressed the president by his first name, “Bola”, and accused him of copying his petrol subsidy proposal without properly implementing it.
“Bola, you are like a dull student who copied his classmate’s answer. You have done it so blindly that the classmate’s name is at the top of his exam paper, and then you demanded marks for original thinking,” he said.
“You copied my production subsidy proposal, nothing wrong about that. You stripped away the part that makes it work and handed Nigerians a 30-day discount. Where is the rest of the answer, Bola? You see why it is good to go to school.”
‘He’s a pained and bitter fellow’
However, Keyamo said Atiku was bitter because Tinubu had become president on his first attempt, despite the former vice-president’s longstanding ambition to lead the country.
“It is now very obvious that Atiku Abubakar is a pained and very bitter fellow,” the statement reads.
“The pain and bitterness stems from the fact that he feels President Bola Ahmed Tinubu finally outsmarted him politically to get the most coveted position of President and he can’t mentally deal with this fact.”
Keyamo described Atiku’s recent outburst against the president, “veiled as opposition heroics”, as “a higher form of depression in the field of mental health called agitated depression”.
The minister said both politicians had pursued the presidency since leaving their respective offices as Lagos governor and vice-president in 2007.
According to Keyamo, Tinubu eventually became president through a combination of “fate, luck, divine interventions and political dexterity”. He added that this remained the source of Atiku’s “pain, anger, despair and depression”.
Citing Ecclesiastes 9:11 in the Bible, Keyamo argued that political success was not determined solely by an individual’s abilities or efforts but also by God.
“Let me remind Atiku Abubakar that, despite all the invectives he has poured on the president of late, power is given only by God Almighty, not by man,” Keyamo said.
He urged those close to Atiku not to encourage him in his criticism of the president but to “actually administer anti-depressants on him”.
“Atiku Abubakar urgently needs mental health support at this critical time as he finally peters into political oblivion,” the minister added.