APC Brands Atiku, El-Rufai, Amaechi ‘Power-Hungry Losers’
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has launched a scathing attack on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, ex-Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, and former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi, describing them as “failed politicians” driven by desperation to reclaim power for personal gain.
In a fiery statement released Monday, APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka defended President Bola Tinubu’s administration, arguing that its economic reforms are ushering in an “unprecedented transformation”, while dismissing recent criticism by the trio as “hypocritical and self-serving”.
The party said, “In all 24 years, the trio, individually or collectively, could not and did not eradicate poverty in their states or the country.
“They did not even attempt to address, let alone tackle, the structural challenges and distortions that stifled the economy and worsened poverty over the years.”
However, Atiku was a founding member of the APC and defected to the PDP to contest the 2019 election. He has also contested the 2023 presidential election and hopes to have a go again in 2027 in an unprecedented manner.
While el-Rufai has officially defected from the APC to the Social Democratic Party in 2025 and is a leading member of the upcoming coalition, Amaechi is still a member of the APC.
It’s not clear why the APC categorised them as failures, as Amaechi and other leading members of the coalition are still in the APC.
The party’s reaction stemmed from a wave of public criticism unleashed on the Tinubu administration by Atiku, Amaechi, and El-Rufai over the weekend, where they accused the president of exacerbating poverty in Nigeria and using economic hardship as a political strategy based on the poverty index, which has risen sharply since the president took office in 2023.
The critics claimed that Tinubu’s reforms disproportionately benefit elites while deepening suffering among ordinary Nigerians.
However, the APC has swiftly hit back, accusing the former leaders of hypocrisy, noting their long tenure in power without corresponding results, although the majority of them served in the APC and are still APC members.
“Rather, they revelled in mindless rent-seeking behaviour, sold national assets to their cronies for a mere pittance, engaged in corrupt and wasteful expenditures in their states, and relentlessly sponsored state violence against their own people,” Morka said.
“Their criticisms are not based on concern for the people but on the disruption of the exploitative system that benefited them for decades.”
But in a more marked attack, the APC particularly took aim at Amaechi, whom he described as a “celebrant” of freeloading, highlighting his 24-year stretch in political office, including roles as Speaker, Governor, and Minister, the latter two positions under the APC.
Morka said of Amaechi, still an APC member, “That’s about a quarter of a century of freeloading by Amaechi on state resources, with absolutely no record of attempting to combat poverty,” Morka said.
“When Amaechi declared, ‘I am hungry,’ he must be understood to mean that he is hungry and desperate to return to his felt-entitled dependency on state resources and patronage.”
The APC struggled to defend President Tinubu’s economic agenda, including fuel subsidy removal and foreign exchange market liberalisation, which it said are necessary to rebuild the economy, although their impact has impoverished Nigerians, creating more poverty than intended.
“The removal of fuel subsidies has been a game-changer,” Morka argued. “It ended massive corruption, eliminated fuel shortages, and sparked a surge in investment,” and that’s about it.
He added that the harmonisation of exchange rates is boosting Nigeria’s global competitiveness and that increased revenue is enabling government investments in infrastructure, health, and welfare, although with no difference.
“Importantly, states that previously struggled to pay the N30,000 minimum wage are now paying a significantly higher wage of N70,000,” he said. “This is a testament to the administration’s commitment to improving the welfare of Nigerians.”
Continuing, the APC framed the opposition’s discontent as a result of losing control over a corrupt system of economic exploitation.
“As beneficiaries of the corrupt and inefficient economic system, they are discomforted that Tinubu’s reforms are dismantling the insidious and permissive system that enabled and sustained their reckless plunder,” Morka stated.
He claimed without evidence that while rent-seekers are “seething with rage”, Nigerian entrepreneurs and service providers are now thriving. Nigeria is still rated as one of the worst countries to do business in.
“Nigerians in productive sectors are reaping the benefits of reforms that have increased opportunities and income. The president’s reforms are dawning a new day for Nigeria,” Morka said without providing data to support his claim.
APC Brands Atiku, El-Rufai, Amaechi ‘Power-Hungry Losers’ is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
