The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, says his challenger on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, is suffering from dementia, saying the APC should replace the latter as the party’s presidential candidate.

Atiku said Tinubu should be replaced by the party to avoid further embarrassment occasioned by his “continued miscues and gaffes” at events.

Tinubu gaffed while speaking at the APC presidential campaign in Lagos on Saturday where he asked his supporters at the venue of the rally to get their “APV” to vote for the ruling party in the 2023 general election.

The former governor of Lagos State had earlier gaffed at the party’s rally flag-off in Jos, Plateau State where he said “God bless PDP”, as against his party, APC.

However, Atiku, in a statement issued on Sunday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, said Tinubu should “only be contesting to be the Grand Comedian of the Federal Republic and not Grand Commander of the Federal Republic going by his utterances.”

He added: “It is public knowledge that every time Tinubu has come out in public to make a statement or two, he has always goofed. If he is not saying that voter’s card has expiration date; he is saying that young Nigerians are Tweeting on WhatsApp or that 50million youths should be recruited into the Nigerian Army and be fed with Cassava in the morning, and Agbado in the night.

“How can you say Nigerians are Tweeting on WhatsApp? Common, is that the kind of person we want to hand 21st Century Nigeria over to?

“In his latest gaffe at the Lagos rally, he asked Nigerians to get their APV in order to vote for APC when even primary school children know that the PVC is the only item that admits a voter into a polling unit.

“Without mincing words Tinubu’s gaffes already supply comedians, skit makers, meme-makers, and TikTokers with content. He is a self-writing joke and will make Nigeria a bye-word for scorn among the comity of nations, which is why he shouldn’t get close to power.

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“Truth be told, lack of mental depth complicated by dementia occasioned by old age is the most mis-recommending criterion against a Tinubu presidency. And examples abound to buttress this point.

“Just listen to any of his extempore speeches and what you find is lack of coherence, logic and verve. It is for the purpose of unmasking the real Tinubu and exposing him for who he really is, that we have challenged the APC standard bearer to an hour-long television interview.”

Shaibu stated that the APC’s seven and a half years regime “is a sad reminder of Nigeria’s arrested development since 2015 when they came to power.”

He noted that Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s claim at the Lagos rally that Tinubu will lift Nigerians out of hardship and hunger was an indictment on the APC, stressing that it was an admission that over 133 million Nigerians now live in abject poverty as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

“Now they are selling a message of a renewed hope. It is common knowledge that darkness cannot cure darkness and sickness cannot cure sickness. How can the APC be promising to fix problems exacerbated by the APC? This is balderdash,” the former Vice President’s aide said.

Shaibu stated that the most compelling reason for the APC to be de-registered “is the fact that it has driven millions of Nigerians deeper into poverty since 2015, when it has been ruling the country, and spent trillions of naira procuring hunger, darkness, and insecurity.

“If the APC are not keen on replacing this disaster of a candidate, they should in the alternative apologis to all Nigerians for bringing them nothing but suffering of unquantifiable proportion since 2015, and proceed to make a solemn pledge not to have anything to do with governance, especially with the February 25, election is fast approaching.

“I must confess that I consider the remarks credited to the APC presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Saturday, November 26th , 2023 where he laboured, albeit unsuccessfully, to paint the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Candidate as ungrateful and over ambitious as not only offensive but reckless.

“Instead of attacking Atiku, he should have dissipated that energy on telling Nigerians about himself, especially at this time when it is said at various fora that the only thing that is real about Tinubu is his person and that every other ascription on him is a borrowed robe.

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“To be sure, Nigerians believe that Tinubu should come in the open to effectively disclaim the allegation that his name as it appears on public documents is not his name; that the parents he claimed were not his; that the certificates he claimed to be his are not and that the schools he claimed to have attended didn’t know him.”

He added: “Tinubu may be a successful politician whose lifetime ambition is to be President of Nigeria, but it takes more than being a politician to become Nigeria’s president. Among others things it takes credibility. The fact that everything about Tinubu is shrouded in secrecy should tell us that the APC Presidential Candidate lacks the credibility to govern a country like Nigeria.

“But more importantly, with the disaster that the APC administration has turned out to be, it will be more catastrophic to have a Tinubu as his successor. Governing Nigeria is not all about identifying surrogates who will man critical political offices for future political gains. Nigeria needs a debonair, cerebral, healthy, and a suave president – a man in the mould of Atiku Abubakar.”

The Star