President Bola Tinubu’s media aide, Sunday Dare, has responded sharply to Atiku Abubakar after the former Vice President likened the President to a dull student, arguing that Tinubu’s first-class accounting degree contradicts the description. Dare, the Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, issued the response after Atiku criticised the Federal Government’s decision to introduce […]
President Bola Tinubu’s media aide, Sunday Dare, has responded sharply to Atiku Abubakar after the former Vice President likened the President to a dull student, arguing that Tinubu’s first-class accounting degree contradicts the description.
Dare, the Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, issued the response after Atiku criticised the Federal Government’s decision to introduce a 30-day fuel price discount at Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited filling stations.
Atiku had described Tinubu as a dull student who copied another student’s answer, alleging that the President had borrowed his proposal for a production subsidy while leaving out the policy’s essential component.
The disagreement followed Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele’s announcement of the temporary fuel price discount. Atiku questioned the government’s approach, presenting his own production subsidy proposal as an alternative to the measure announced by the administration.
Dare rejected Atiku’s attempt to portray himself as the more knowledgeable figure on economic policy. He described the comparison as absurd and referred to Tinubu as a first-class accounting graduate in challenging the former Vice President’s remark.
“Atiku’s attempt to position himself as the ‘smart student’ teaching economic policy falls apart under even light scrutiny. First, it is sheer absurdity that a man who graduated from a school of hygiene dares to call a first-class accounting graduate a dull student,” Dare stated.
The presidential aide also attacked the substance of Atiku’s production subsidy proposal, describing it as a dangerous mathematical fantasy rather than a credible economic alternative. He accused the ADC presidential candidate of misleading Nigerians about the policy and its likely implications.
Dare further argued that Atiku’s accusation of economic policy plagiarism ignored the production subsidy element he considered central to the former Vice President’s proposal. He indicated that the figures behind the disagreement deserved scrutiny, but the published report did not provide the complete calculations.
The dispute has widened the public disagreement over the government’s fuel pricing decision, with Atiku questioning the administration’s policy and the Presidency defending Tinubu’s academic background while challenging the opposition figure’s economic proposal.