Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said the Nigerian presidency is not President Bola Tinubu’s “ancestral stool” after being rebuked for addressing the head of state by his first name, “Bola.”
The criticism came from Tinubu’s media aide, Sunday Dare, who accused Atiku of showing “insolence and desperation” by using the president’s given name instead of the formal title.
In a statement signed by his media aide, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku argued that the backlash was “manufactured outrage” stemming from the presidency’s inability to defend Tinubu’s record, which he described as “disastrous.”
“Nigerians elected a president, not an emperor. Public office does not confer divinity, and the Presidential Villa is not a royal court before which citizens must kneel, bow and whisper. The presidency is not Tinubu’s ancestral stool, and Nigeria is not his private estate,” Atiku wrote.
He added that addressing the president directly was necessary given the “suffering of Nigerians” over high petrol and food prices, and stressed that the office of the president is “held in trust for the Nigerian people” and subject to scrutiny from all citizens, including opposition figures.
<small>Source: Daily Post Nigeria — read the original story there.</small>
