Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has fired back at President Bola Tinubu, who accused him of looting public funds to establish a university. Mr Abubakar said Mr Tinubu forfeited thousands of dollars to the U.S. government, while he was laying the foundation for the American University of Nigeria Academy (ABTI).

Mr Abubakar, in a statement on Saturday by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, dismissed Mr Tinubu’s latest attack on his investment in education as a desperate attempt to distract Nigerians from his administration’s failure.

“Again, Bola Tinubu has told Nigerians why they should not allow him to continue as president after his first tenure. He also chose to question my investment in education and ask how I built an educational institution while serving as vice president,” Mr Abubakar said.

He added, “The answer is simple: my investment in education predates my time in public service. In 1993, while a U.S. court ordered the forfeiture of funds in an account in your name, describing them as proceeds of narcotics trafficking or funds involved in unlawful financial transactions, I was laying the foundation for ABTI Academy. That Academy has since grown into the American University of Nigeria.”

The presidential candidate said he could give a detailed account of how he built the university, unlike Mr Tinubu, whose life is rocked by several scandals.

 “That moment captures the difference between us. My history is traceable. I can show Nigerians how I built my name, achieved success in business, and entered public leadership. Your own history remains clumsy and foggy. You cannot erase it by attacking my record in education,” said Mr Abubakar, also a former vice president. 

He stated that Mr Tinubu should not seek re-election, having “plunged the country into a crushing cost-of-living crisis.”

“The real conversation about the 2027 election is how to repair the damage your government has done,” Mr Abubakar said.

“Since your inauguration in 2023, your leadership has become synonymous with hardship, pain, and despair. Your record is a working example of how a country should not be led.

“You have created poverty on an industrial scale, pushing more than 79 million Nigerians into extreme poverty.

“You created poverty, then insult the people suffering from it. You attack my Affordable Life campaign, but the people you are really attacking are the millions of Nigerians desperate for relief from your failed leadership,” he said.

Mr Abubakar’s statement followed Mr Tinubu’s accusation that he looted Nigeria’s treasury as a vice president to build his university.

“Those people talking of hunger, I’m cleaning the mess they created. Atiku was one of them,” Mr Tinubu said at his presidential campaign rally in Port Harcourt on Saturday.

“Ask him how he built a university while in office as vice president in charge of our economy. Who built the university for him? It’s your money. A man without moral integrity and ethics,” the president added.