Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate for the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has rebuked the Presidency for comparing his record to China, suggesting the strategy backfired by highlighting President Bola Tinubu’s own controversial past. Through his aide, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku claimed that using China as a benchmark creates an impossible standard for the current administration.
Atiku emphasized that while China imposes harsh penalties, including capital punishment, for narcotics trafficking, he has never been convicted of any such crime in Nigeria or abroad. He challenged the Presidency to apply those same strict Chinese standards to the $460,000 forfeiture case in the United States, which involved allegations of money laundering and drug trafficking.
According to Atiku, if China’s rigid accountability measures were truly in place, the current administration would face scrutiny over budget irregularities, accusations of fake agency creation by presidential aides, and the widespread economic suffering under the current governance model. He dismissed the Presidency’s reliance on diplomatic correspondence as irrelevant to judicial vindication, arguing that if the government chooses to invoke international standards, it must be prepared to face them fully without selective application.
