Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, has strongly rebuked former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for what he termed a “penchant for distorting facts” aimed at discrediting the current administration.
In a scathing press statement issued on May 6th, 2024, Onanuga accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 elections of making “wild claims on a number of issues that need to be corrected so that the public will not be misled into accepting fallacies as the truth.”
Onanuga vehemently refuted Atiku’s assertions regarding a lack of foreign investment in Nigeria under Tinubu’s leadership. “Contrary to Atiku’s claim, the Tinubu administration, within its first year, has attracted over $20 billion into the economy,” he stated.
Furthermore, Onanuga highlighted the surge in foreign investment in Nigeria’s stock market, which has soared from N18.12 billion in the first quarter of 2023 to N93.37 billion in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 415%. “In an unmistakable vote of confidence in the economic reforms being executed by the Tinubu administration, foreign investment in Nigeria’s stock market has ballooned,” he said.
Addressing Atiku’s allegation of conflict of interest regarding the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project, Onanuga dismissed it as baseless. “We found it strange that Alhaji Atiku could accuse President Tinubu of conflict of interest in the award of Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway to Hitech Construction Company which he claimed is owned by Chagoury family because the President’s son, Seyi Tinubu, sits on the board of CDK, a tiles manufacturing company, based in Sagamu, Ogun State,” he stated.
Onanuga questioned Atiku’s own business dealings while serving as Vice President, stating: “When he was Vice President of Nigeria between 1999-2007, he maintained his business links with Intels that won major port concession deals. Was this not an abuse of office, a flagrant violation of his oath, that a company where he was a co-owner won major government contracts and concessions when he was vice president?”
Defending the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project, Onanuga described it as an “all-important and transformative project” that will bring prosperity. He accused Atiku of waging “a campaign of calumny against the economic fortunes and prosperity of a country he wishes to govern or trying to scuttle a project that will bring prosperity to nine coastal states and the nation in general.”
Onanuga asserted, “Under the progressive, bold, inventive, and innovative leadership of President Tinubu, Nigeria will bounce back to where it rightfully belongs as Africa’s largest market and biggest economy.” He added, “The Tinubu administration targets a $1 trillion economy in the next few years, with audacious economic programmes and critical infrastructure projects in key sectors.”
The press statement concluded by stating, “The President Bola Tinubu-led administration believes that every true and patriotic Nigerian, regardless of political differences, should work to promote the unity and economic well-being of the country and not delegitimise genuine efforts of the Federal Government to encourage local and foreign investments into the economy.”
