Isaac Samuel
Nigeria’s political atmosphere became increasingly toxic over the weekend as the camp of President Bola Tinubu and that of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar descended into a bitter war of words, trading accusations over decades-old drug allegations, corruption, abuse of office and the conduct of government.
This is coming as an early escalation of the battle for the 2027 presidential election.
The latest exchange was triggered by a series of statements from both camps, with the Presidency, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku’s media team launching personal attacks that shifted attention away from policy debates to allegations surrounding character, integrity and past records.
At the centre of the dispute is the long-running controversy surrounding President Tinubu’s 1993 civil forfeiture of $460,000 in the United States, linked to allegations investigated by American authorities at the time.
While President Tinubu has consistently maintained that the matter was resolved decades ago and has never resulted in a criminal conviction, the opposition has continued to raise questions about the case as part of its criticism of his administration.
Earlier in the week, Atiku’s media office accused the Presidency of attempting to “whitewash” the controversy after presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga defended the President and argued that the issue had long been settled.
The opposition challenged the administration to allow full public scrutiny of documents reportedly held by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ), insisting that the Presidency’s continued resistance to renewed attention on the case only fuelled public suspicion.
“If President Tinubu has nothing to hide about his records in the US narcotics scandal, he should submit himself to the process of revisiting the case instead of resorting to his usual tactics,” Atiku’s media office stated.
The Presidency rejected the allegations, insisting that the President had no criminal conviction in the United States and accusing Atiku of recycling issues already settled by law and by the electorate.
The dispute took a fresh twist on Saturday after Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, accused the Presidency of scoring “a monumental own goal” by invoking China while attempting to discredit the former vice president.
Shaibu argued that China’s criminal justice system imposes severe penalties, including the death sentence, for serious drug trafficking offences, contending that the comparison only invited Nigerians to scrutinise President Tinubu’s own past.
“It takes a peculiar kind of unintelligence for a spokesman to set out to drag an opponent before a hypothetical Chinese court, only to end up dragging his own principal into the dock,” the statement said.
According to Atiku’s aide, the former vice president had never been indicted or convicted of corruption, narcotics offences or any criminal offence anywhere in the world, insisting that the Presidency’s reference to China had strengthened rather than weakened the opposition’s argument.
Shaibu further expanded the criticism beyond the drug allegations, arguing that China’s justice system is equally uncompromising on corruption and abuse of public office.
He alleged that practices such as budget padding, the alleged creation of a fake government agency by a presidential aide and what he described as worsening economic hardship would not be tolerated under the Chinese system.
He questioned what Chinese authorities would have done in relation to the $460,000 forfeiture in the United States, insisting that such a case would have attracted even greater official scrutiny.
The APC also joined the offensive against Atiku.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the ruling party accused the former vice president of ignorance after he alleged that the Federal Government’s 2026 Service-Wide Vote could be used to finance President Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign.
Describing the allegation as “highly mischievous” and “disturbingly ignorant,” Morka explained that the Service-Wide Vote is a long-established budgetary provision used to finance unforeseen government obligations and not a secret political fund.
“The ghost of his sordid past haunts Atiku,” Morka declared, accusing the former vice president of attempting to project his alleged record in public office onto the Tinubu administration.
He described Atiku as a “serial presidential contestant” who had failed to articulate a clear development agenda for Nigeria, alleging that he had instead resorted to spreading misinformation and “doomsday narratives.
The APC defended the Tinubu administration’s economic policies, citing the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), implementation of the new national minimum wage, the Consumer Credit Scheme, the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative, tax reforms, infrastructure projects and investments in agriculture and healthcare as evidence of responsible governance.
The latest exchange marks one of the fiercest confrontations between both political camps since the formation of the African Democratic Congress-led opposition coalition.
Indeed the increasingly personal nature of the attacks signals that the battle for the 2027 presidential election has effectively begun, with both sides seeking to define the public narrative long before campaigns officially commence.
While the Presidency insists that President Tinubu remains focused on implementing the Renewed Hope Agenda, the opposition maintains that questions surrounding accountability, transparency and integrity will remain central issues in the contest for Nigeria’s highest office.
