Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has asked President Bola Tinubu to stop blaming past administrations for Nigeria’s challenges.

In a statement issued on Friday by Phrank Shaibu, his senior special assistant on public communication, Atiku, who is also the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said after more than three years in office, Nigerians expect solutions, not excuses, from the president.

He criticised Tinubu’s recent claim that “prosperity is on the horizon” and that the quality of life is improving, describing the remarks as evidence of a disconnect between the government and the realities facing Nigerians.

“Mr. President says prosperity is on the horizon. Nigerians are asking: whose horizon? Certainly not that of the market woman whose capital has been wiped out by inflation,” the statement reads.

“Not that of the civil servant whose salary now expires before the month begins. Not that of the manufacturer struggling under crushing energy costs. Not that of the unemployed graduate who sees no future.

“Certainly not that of farming communities forced off their ancestral lands by terrorists and bandits, families mourning loved ones slaughtered in senseless attacks, or countless Nigerians who now live in daily fear of kidnappers who have turned human lives into commodities.

“And certainly not that of millions of households that have quietly reduced the number of meals they eat each day simply to survive.”

The former vice-president said while Tinubu inherited challenges, he was elected to address them rather than continue to explain their origins.

“The constitution did not swear President Tinubu into office to explain history. It swore him into office to change it. Every administration inherits problems. Great leaders are remembered for solving them, not for endlessly rehearsing them,” he stated.

Atiku said the Tinubu administration could no longer govern by shifting responsibility to its predecessors.

“The Nigerian people are not interested in who created the problem. They want to know who will solve it. A government that still blames its predecessors after years in office is, by its own conduct, admitting that it has run out of ideas,” he said.

“President Tinubu may find comfort in blaming those before him, but history will remember his administration as the one under which Nigerians endured unprecedented hardship, institutionalised fiscal recklessness, and one of the greatest appropriation scandals in the annals of our nation.

“The suffering of Nigerians today is driven not by the past, but by an administration that has elevated opacity over transparency, rewarded a privileged circle of cronies, and condemned millions to deepening economic pain, insecurity, and despair.”

Atiku also faulted the president for attributing some of Nigeria’s difficulties to its population, arguing that countries such as China had turned their large populations into economic assets through strategic investments.

“It is even more astonishing that a President who constantly invokes China now blames Nigeria’s population for the country’s difficulties,” he said.

“China did not become an economic superpower by complaining about the size of its population. It became prosperous because visionary leadership transformed that population into its greatest economic asset through sustained investment in manufacturing, infrastructure, education, technology, and export-led industrialisation.

“Great leaders convert challenges into opportunities. They do not convert opportunities into excuses.”

He said an administration led by him would prioritise investment in manufacturing, infrastructure, education, agriculture and export-driven industries to harness Nigeria’s youthful population.

The former vice-president also described it as insensitive for Tinubu to suggest that because hunger existed before he was born, Nigerians should accept the current economic hardship.

“Nobody ‘elected’ Tinubu to eliminate the hunger of 1940. Nigerians ‘elected’ him to confront the hunger of today. The fact that previous generations endured hardship is not a licence to deepen the suffering of the present generation,” he said.

He added that hope must be backed by tangible improvements in the lives of citizens.

“Hope cannot be preached to a hungry stomach. It cannot be legislated into existence,” he stated.

“It cannot substitute for affordable food, stable electricity, productive jobs, quality education, accessible healthcare, or security for families to sleep with both eyes closed. Government inspires hope through performance, not rhetoric.”

Atiku urged the president to reconnect with the realities confronting ordinary Nigerians.

“If the President truly believes that the quality of life is improving, then one must respectfully remind him that the Nigeria he is talking about exists only in his head,” he said.

“It is certainly not the Nigeria where families are choosing between food and medicine, where communities are fleeing armed violence, where kidnappers dictate the rhythm of daily life, and where hope is becoming more expensive than bread.”