Atiku’s Camp Fires Back at Oshiomhole, Accuses APC of ‘Decades-Deep Failure’

The team of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has issued a sharp rebuttal to Senator Adams Oshiomhole, accusing the former All Progressives Congress (APC) national chairman of using “noise as a smokescreen” to obscure what it described as the ruling party’s disastrous performance in government.

Oshiomhole had earlier mocked Atiku as a serial defector following the former vice president’s official registration with the African Democratic Congress (ADC) after exiting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

In a strongly worded statement signed by Phrank Shaibu, Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, the former vice president’s camp said Oshiomhole lacked the moral authority to question Atiku’s leadership pedigree, insisting that the APC senator should “check the mirror before speaking.”

Shaibu argued that Oshiomhole’s comments were an attempt to divert public attention from what he called “the monumental failures of the APC — the same party he helped impose on Nigeria, and the same party under which the country has plunged into its worst condition in decades.”

Describing Oshiomhole’s remarks as “a tired distraction,” Shaibu stressed that Atiku, as Vice President, never controlled the PDP machinery and did not run a party “as a private estate controlled from Bourdillon.”

“If Oshiomhole seeks the man who ‘fixed a party’ into a personal empire, he needs only look at the godfather he serves. Under the APC, party supremacy died, dissent was criminalised, and institutions of state became partisan weapons. That is the only kind of ‘fixing’ Oshiomhole understands,” the statement said.

Shaibu praised Atiku’s national contributions, recalling that he chaired the National Economic Council, boosted investor confidence, strengthened the private sector, and oversaw reforms that shaped Nigeria’s economic direction.

“He has never been President, yet his development blueprint remains the most coherent Nigeria has seen in decades,” he added.

Turning his fire on the ruling party, Shaibu said, “If the APC could not fix Nigeria after eight wasted years and nearly three years of Tinubu, what moral authority does Oshiomhole have to comment on leadership?”

He contrasted what he described as Atiku’s “vision, experience and capacity” with the APC’s “noise, propaganda and bruising legacy.”

“Oshiomhole represents the failure of a party that betrayed the hopes of millions. He should sit this one out,” Shaibu concluded.

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