SUNDAY Dare, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Public Communication, has criticised former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar for referring to the President simply as “Bola”.
News Point Nigeria reports that Dare, in a post on X on Saturday, was reacting to Atiku’s call for Tinubu to reduce petrol and electricity costs and ease the economic burden on households, workers and businesses.
Atiku had on Friday asked Tinubu to use the remaining eight months of his administration to reduce the burden of petrol and electricity costs on households, workers and businesses. He said the removal of petrol subsidy in May 2023 had contributed to higher transportation, food, logistics and energy costs, while also warning against phasing out electricity subsidies without addressing the impact on households and businesses.
Dare described Atiku’s manner of addressing the President as “the height of insolence”, accusing the former Vice-President of political desperation.
“Alhaji Atiku’s manner of addressing President Bola Tinubu as Bola is the height of insolence. It is a clear descent into the abyss of unbridled desperation and an unraveling mind,” Dare wrote.
“To seek to lecture a sitting president with the unbridled insolence of dropping his first name, petulantly barking instructions, and dictating how governance should be run within a truncated timeline is the height of political hubris.”
Dare defended the Tinubu administration’s economic policies, saying the President was undertaking reforms to address structural problems in the economy.
Dare also questioned Atiku’s criticism of government intervention in the economy.
“Atiku’s sudden conversion to the gospel of interventionism rings hollow,” he said.
He accused Atiku of using Nigerians’ economic difficulties for political purposes ahead of the 2027 elections.
“This is a desperate strategy by a perennial seeker of power who weaponizes transient national discomforts for electoral mileage,” Dare added.
“Nigerians do not need lectures on fiscal management from a political wanderer whose decades-long pursuit of the presidency has been defined by perpetual opportunism.”
The criticism by Dare came amid Atiku’s call for measures to reduce petrol prices and ease the pressure of rising living costs, including his argument that the President could adopt his proposed intervention even if he renamed it and took credit for it, provided Nigerians paid less.
Festus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, also criticised Atiku’s use of Tinubu’s first name, describing it as “disrespectful and discourteous”.
“The continuous reference to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu by His Excellency, ex Vice-President Atiku Abubakar in his press conference earlier today as ‘Bola’ is very disrespectful and discourteous,” he wrote on X.
He said Atiku should recognise that the office of the President deserves to be accorded dignity despite political differences.
“He should know better that no matter your differences with Mr. President, for the sake of the country, that office should be accorded all the dignity it deserves,” Keyamo said.
Keyamo also described the tone of Atiku’s remarks as reflecting “pain and bitterness”, while referring to the former Vice-President’s recent comment about Tinubu’s age.
“After all, he made the outlandish claim the other day that Mr. President is older than himself. It is therefore a contradiction that he would also refer to an ‘elder’ by his first name,” he said.