A Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Phrank Shaibu, has accused President Bola Tinubu of faking a foreign accent and questioned the value of the president’s speech and presentation style amid Nigeria’s economic hardship.
Shaibu made the remarks on Monday during an interview on Frontline, A current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese Ijebu.
“Have you taken your time to listen to Tinubu on television or radio before?” Shaibu asked. “Listen to him. This is a man who fakes his accent because he wants to stamp the fact and remind Nigerians that he once lived in America,” he said.
Shaibu then dismissed the importance of the president’s accent in determining his capacity to govern. He continued by criticising what he described as the president’s struggle with English despite the accent he claimed Tinubu adopted.
“Accents don’t put money in our pockets neither does it mean capacity in our brain,” he said.
“You cannot use accent, use an American accent or the British accent without speaking good English,” Shaibu added.
The SSA to the former vice president argued that Nigerians should judge the administration by the material conditions in which citizens were living.
He said the removal of subsidy had increased the cost of petrol and, by extension, transportation, food, education and healthcare.
According to him, government claims of increased revenue did not mean Nigerians were better off. Shaibu said that even if government had increased its revenues, the purchasing power of ordinary Nigerians had declined sharply.
He described the argument that increased government revenue automatically represented economic success as “maths of wretched illiteracy.”
“Anybody could contemplate that and say it is economics but It’s not economics,” he said.
The Atiku aide further attacked Tinubu’s argument that Nigerians had suffered hunger even before his administration. He referred to a statement attributed to the president that Nigerians had been hungry before he was born.
“This is a man who went on national television and said that before he was born, Nigerians have been hungry,” Shaibu said.
“Hunger did not start with him. Look at that audacity,” he added.
Shaibu described the statement as “reckless audacity” from a president presiding over a country with a large population of Educated Professionals.
Tinubu Still Borrowing Like ‘Drunken Sailor’ Despite Subsidy Windfall, Shaibu Alleges
Phrank Shaibu further accused President Bola Tinubu of misleading Nigerians over the funding of the Federal Government’s student loan scheme, insisting that the programme was not being financed with savings from fuel subsidy removal.
Shaibu alleged that the Tinubu administration was diverting subsidy savings to political allies while relying on recoveries from financial crimes and unclaimed dividends to fund education loans for Nigerian students.
“It is a lie from the pit of hell. Tinubu is not paying student loans from monies that came from removal of fuel subsidy.
He is sharing that money between himself, his friends and associates.”
The Atiku aide also criticised the administration’s borrowing profile, questioning why the Federal Government was still accumulating debt despite claiming that subsidy removal had significantly increased government revenue.
“He is still taking loans like a drunken sailor. He has taken more loans than all the presidents that have ruled Nigeria combined since independence.”
Shaibu further alleged that proceeds recovered from financial crimes and unclaimed dividends belonging to deceased Nigerians were being used to finance student loans, describing such funds as inappropriate for funding the education of young Nigerians.
“That money he is using to give loans to our children is money that is cursed. In Islam, we call it haram.”
He argued that if the government needed to support the education of future doctors, engineers, astronauts and other professionals, it should do so with legitimate public revenue rather than what he described as “proceeds of crime.”
