Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticized the Presidency for invoking China’s legal system while defending President Bola Tinubu, arguing that the comparison has instead renewed public attention on longstanding allegations surrounding the President’s past.
Atiku, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate for the 2027 election, described the Presidency’s argument as a “monumental own goal,” noting that China is known for imposing severe penalties, including the death sentence, for the most serious drug trafficking offences.
The remarks followed an earlier exchange between the Presidency and Atiku over reports that a lobbying group linked to the former vice president submitted petitions to U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S. State Department concerning Tinubu’s 1993 civil forfeiture case and other related issues.
Responding through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku accused the Presidency of attacking his character instead of addressing the substantive concerns raised.
“When governments abandon facts for insults and substitute evidence with abuse, they unwittingly admit that they have run out of convincing answers. Nigerians expected clarification. What they received instead was a barrage of name-calling and political invective,” the statement said.
In a fresh statement issued on Saturday, Atiku argued that the Presidency’s attempt to use China as a benchmark for accountability had unintentionally exposed Tinubu to greater public scrutiny.
“It takes a peculiar kind of unintelligence for a spokesman to set out to drag an opponent before a hypothetical Chinese court, only to end up dragging his own principal into the dock.
“Perhaps, the spokesman did not realise that the maximum penalty under Chinese law for the most serious drug trafficking offences is death. Having chosen China as his benchmark, he unwittingly invited Nigerians to examine the very standard he thought would embarrass Atiku Abubakar,” the statement read.
Atiku maintained that he has never been convicted or indicted for corruption, drug-related offences, or any criminal offence either in Nigeria or abroad.
“The facts are neither complicated nor disputable. Atiku Abubakar has never been indicted or convicted by any court in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world for corruption, narcotics offences or, indeed, any criminal offence whatsoever. That is an incontrovertible matter of public record,” Shaibu stated on his behalf.
The former vice president further argued that if the Tinubu administration intended to rely on China’s standards of accountability, Nigerians were equally entitled to examine how Chinese authorities might have handled a case involving the $460,000 forfeited to the United States government in a civil forfeiture proceeding linked to allegations of narcotics trafficking and money laundering.
According to Atiku, China’s legal system is internationally recognized for its uncompromising stance on narcotics offences and official misconduct.
“China is renowned for its uncompromising approach to narcotics-related offences and public accountability. It is not a jurisdiction where the forfeiture of suspicious proceeds ordinarily marks the end of official scrutiny. More often than not, that is where scrutiny begins.”
Expanding his criticism beyond the forfeiture issue, Atiku accused the Tinubu administration of failing to uphold accountability in governance.
He alleged that under China’s governance system, controversies such as budget padding, abuse of office, and the creation of a fake government agency would have prompted swift official action.
“Not in China would a president sign into law a national budget immersed in scandals, padding and duplicitous appropriations. Not in China would a President look the other way while a senior presidential aide faces grave allegations of creating a fake government agency. Not in China would a government campaign on Renewed Hope only to deliver renewed hardship to its citizens.”
Atiku also dismissed the Presidency’s reliance on a recent diplomatic response from the United States government as evidence that Tinubu had been cleared of wrongdoing.
He argued that diplomatic correspondence between sovereign nations should not be interpreted as a judicial verdict.
“The Presidency should also stop brandishing the United States Government’s reply to its diplomatic correspondence as though it were a judicial acquittal. Diplomatic correspondence between sovereign governments is routine. It is neither a judgment of a court, nor a declaration of innocence, nor an instrument for rewriting history.”
He urged the Federal Government to focus on addressing Nigeria’s economic and security challenges rather than engaging in political exchanges.
“The Tinubu administration would do better to devote its dwindling political capital to confronting the economic hardship, rising hunger, insecurity and institutional decline afflicting Nigerians instead of manufacturing diversions that collapse at the slightest contact with the facts.”
The latest statement marks another chapter in the ongoing war of words between the Presidency and the opposition over President Tinubu’s past legal issues in the United States.
The controversy resurfaced after the Presidency cited a response from U.S. authorities to Nigeria’s diplomatic inquiries as proof that there were no outstanding criminal proceedings against the President.
While defending that position, presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga argued that even under China’s legal framework, the allegations against Tinubu would not have resulted in criminal prosecution.
Atiku rejected that argument, insisting that referencing China’s legal standards only intensified scrutiny because of the country’s strict anti-drug laws and robust anti-corruption policies.
The former vice president’s statement was issued in response to a post shared by Onanuga on his verified X account on Friday, in which the presidential spokesman accused Atiku of corrupt practices during his time in office and claimed that, if he were Chinese, he would have been imprisoned.
“Nigerians have not forgotten the legacy of the privatisation programme under Atiku’s watch as vice president. He presided over an egregious privatisation heist, selling national assets to cronies for peanuts and causing thousands of job losses and unpaid salaries and pensions that President Tinubu is clearing today.
“A man with such a dismal record as a public servant certainly has no business asking for our votes. Indeed, if Atiku Abubakar were a Chinese, he would be rotting away in jail for his crimes against the Nigerian people,” Onanuga wrote.
