Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has fired back at the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, saying he does not need “validation from political opportunists”.
Bwala, who previously served as spokesperson for Atiku’s 2023 presidential campaign under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had advised the former vice president to accept that “the presidency may not be part of his destiny.”
“If I have the opportunity to meet him face to face, what I will tell him is just this: ‘Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, you have to believe in destiny. God gives power to whomsoever He chooses. And it seems from the facts on the ground that it may not have been the will of God for you to govern Nigeria,” Bwala said during the interview.
However, Atiku’s media team hit back, describing Bwala’s remarks as “sanctimonious pontificating laced with bitterness and duplicity.”
In a statement on Tuesday, Atiku’s media office described Bwala as a “political opportunist” and a “turncoat,” accusing him of hypocrisy and opportunism following his comments during a televised interview on Monday.
“It is both ironic and pathetic that Mr Bwala — a political turncoat who once served as spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar’s 2023 presidential campaign — now presumes to lecture a statesman of global standing on matters of legacy, destiny, and retirement,” the statement read.
“Atiku Abubakar neither seeks nor requires validation from political opportunists who shed principles as easily as they change parties. Mr Bwala’s current relevance, if any, is owed entirely to the platform he once occupied under Atiku’s leadership — a fact that should breed humility, not arrogance.”
