Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has strongly criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over recent comments blaming the media for reports on insecurity and economic hardship in the country.
Atiku described the Presidency’s stance as “absurd,” likening it to blaming a thermometer for a fever, and warned that denying the realities facing Nigerians would only delay solutions to the nation’s challenges.
In a statement issued on Wednesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former Vice President said it was both surprising and insulting that the government had chosen to attack the media instead of addressing the concerns being reported.
According to him, the latest remarks from the Presidency demonstrate a growing disconnect between those in government and ordinary Nigerians who continue to grapple with rising living costs and worsening insecurity.
“The role of the media in a democracy is to amplify public concerns and hold leaders accountable, not to serve as a praise-singing platform for those in power,” Atiku stated.
He argued that Nigerians do not need newspaper headlines or television broadcasts to confirm the economic hardship they experience daily.
“The father struggling to provide food for his family, the mother battling rising food prices, the small business owner whose capital has been wiped out, and the unemployed graduate do not need the media to tell them that times are hard,” he said.
Atiku maintained that hunger has become one of the defining features of the current administration, with many households forced to skip meals, withdraw children from school, and choose between essential needs such as food, transportation, healthcare, and rent.
He further accused the government of dismissing the suffering of citizens by suggesting that reports of hardship were exaggerated.
On the issue of security, Atiku rejected attempts to blame the media for public perceptions of insecurity, insisting that journalists merely report incidents that occur across the country.
He cited killings in Benue and Plateau states, bandit attacks in Zamfara, Katsina and Niger states, as well as incidents of kidnapping and terrorism, arguing that these realities existed independently of media coverage.
“The media did not create insecurity, arm criminals, or invent the attacks taking place across the country,” he said.
The former Vice President warned that governments often lose touch with reality when they become more concerned with controlling public narratives than solving problems.
Quoting an African proverb, he said, “A man who covers his eyes cannot stop the sun from rising. Denial does not change reality; it merely postpones solutions.”
Atiku also questioned what he described as the moral basis of blaming journalists for exposing the consequences of government policies.
He pointed to rising food prices, the depreciation of the naira, increasing energy costs, and persistent insecurity as evidence that the administration’s challenges stem from policy outcomes rather than media reports.
“The failures of this administration are rooted in the outcomes of its policies, not in the reporting of those outcomes,” he said.
He concluded by asserting that the realities facing Nigerians are visible in the soaring cost of living, high transportation and energy costs, and what he described as a growing sense of hopelessness among many citizens.
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