An aide to the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, has accused President Bola Tinubu’s government of propaganda.
Atiku’s Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said in a statement at the weekend that the fake news regarding the lifting of the visa ban by the United Arab Emirates was just a “tip of the iceberg”.
Shaibu claimed that Tinubu had already appointed over 15 media aides with the sole aim of pushing misinformation as a policy of the state and distracting Nigerians from the deep pains his administration had caused them.
He noted that this has always been Tinubu’s style from his days as governor and leader of his party.
Atiku’s aide said, “From the information available to us, Bola Tinubu is set to push propaganda to overdrive as he heads out for the United Nations General Assembly. He will claim to have attracted foreign investments amounting to $100bn but will fail to provide key details. It is all propaganda.
“In India, he claimed they had received pledges of over $14bn just as his predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, claimed in 2018 that he had secured pledges of up to $6bn. This is nothing but audio investments.
“After his trip to the UAE, Tinubu claimed the visa ban had been lifted immediately. Now, they have shifted the goalpost after the UAE authorities revealed that the news was false. This is the sort of embarrassment Nigeria will continue to attract in this season of ‘balablu’.
“The report by FTSE revealed that Tinubu’s so-called FX unification policy was failing and Nigeria was degraded from a frontier market to unclassified. Having failed to bring economic rebirth, he has now recruited over 15 media aides instead of recruiting more economic experts.
Shaibu said it was laughable that Tinubu, who vowed to hit the ground running from the first day, had held only one cabinet meeting since his inauguration nearly 120 days ago.
He asked Nigerians to remain patient as the Supreme Court prepares to commence work on the election petition appeal.
