Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, pointedly told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that no amount of macho rhetoric can rescue his government that has already lost the confidence of the people.
He reminded President Tinubu that democracy is not a wrestling ring where intimidation determines the winner, but a market place of ideas and accountability.
Atiku, who is also the 2027 Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), emphasised that the Nigerian people are not looking for a wrestler, but a leader, saying that history will not remember who shouted the loudest, but who governed the best.
He therefore urged President Tinubu to abandon political grandstanding and confront the monumental failures of his administration.
The former Vice President who stated this in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, described President Tinubu’s declaration that he would “wrestle his opponents to the finish” as the lamentation of a drowning man desperately seeking to divert attention from an abysmal record in office.
Atiku said it was particularly disturbing that such a reckless and undistinguished remark was made in response to a solemn appeal by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria for credible, transparent and peaceful elections.
The ADC Presidential candidate noted that Tinubu’s flippant response underscored the prevailing sense of aloofness that has come to define his administration and reflected a troubling lack of the courtesy, humility and decorum expected of a President during such a high-profile engagement with one of the country’s most respected moral institutions.
He further said that rather than reassuring Nigerians of his commitment to electoral integrity, Tinubu chose bravado over statesmanship.
In the words of Atiku; “Mr. President, you are a drowning man. Wrestle with your failures, not your opponents”.
The former Vice President also stressed that a President presiding over the worst cost-of-living crisis in recent memory ought not to be talking about wrestling political opponents, but about wrestling inflation to the ground, defeating hunger, restoring security, stabilising the naira and rebuilding public confidence in government.
According to Atiku; “The President should wrestle with the millions of Nigerians who now skip meals because food has become a luxury.
“He should wrestle with the insecurity that has turned farming communities into graveyards and highways into hunting grounds for criminals. He should wrestle with the unemployment that has robbed an entire generation of hope. “He should wrestle with an economy suffocating under policy inconsistency, reckless borrowing and dwindling investor confidence.
“When leaders fail, they often resort to political theatre in the hope that loud rhetoric will drown out the cries of suffering citizens.
“These are the words of a drowning man. A government that has little to celebrate inevitably seeks refuge in chest-thumping.
“But Nigerians are no longer interested in political performances. They are interested in performance in government. Empty slogans cannot fill empty stomachs. Boastful declarations cannot lower food prices. Threats against political opponents cannot restore the value of the naira,” he stressed.
Atiku further said that the greatest opponent confronting President Tinubu is neither the ADC nor any other opposition party, but his record.
“His greatest opponent is his own record. Every unpaid worker, every struggling business, every unemployed graduate, every victim of insecurity and every hungry family is a living testimony to the consequences of his administration’s choices. That is the contest he has consistently failed to win.
“Governments earn another term through competence, compassion and measurable results—not through combative rhetoric.
“In 2027, Nigerians will not be stepping into a wrestling arena. They will be stepping into polling units to deliver a constitutional verdict,” Atiku stated.
The former Vice President therefore urged President Tinubu to devote the remainder of his tenure to addressing the nation’s deepening crises instead of manufacturing imaginary political battles.
