Senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, has slammed former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, following his criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s recent condolence visit to Plateau State.
Naijaonpoint reports that Atiku, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), condemned Tinubu’s decision to visit Plateau State on Saturday to attend the funeral of the mother of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, Mama Lydia.
Atiku said Tinubu attended a social event in the North-Central state instead of visiting victims and consoling communities ravaged by insecurity.
However, Oshiomhole, during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, said Atiku was politicising a matter that should command empathy and respect for the dead.
The former Governor of Edo State defended President Tinubu’s visit to Plateau to pay respects to Yilwatda’s mother, saying it was inappropriate to describe the gesture as insensitive.
Oshiomhole also recalled his experience as President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and what Atiku did in office as Vice President, stressing that they often forget their own record in governance.
He said, “I have sympathy for former Vice President Atiku for thinking that even in matters of death and honouring the dead, politics must be involved. As an elder statesman, at his age, he should know better.
“Can anyone accuse the President of being insensitive just because he attended a condolence visit? Even if he went to pay his last respects to the mother of the APC Chairman, what is wrong with that? This was even on a weekend.
“I was practically a one-man opposition when Atiku was Vice President, and they forget in a hurry what they did in office. Rather than discuss alternative policy choices for Nigeria, they trivialise politics with arguments about empathy.”
The former APC National Chairman said he believes Atiku has allowed himself to be consumed by partisan politics, urging him to rise above political bitterness.
He added, “In politics, everything is seen through partisan eyes, but I think he should be more than that.”
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