Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar criticized First Lady Oluremi Tinubu’s distribution of 100 trucks of rice and ₦1.2bn cash support to northern states, calling it a politicized response to economic misery.
This was indicated in an Abuja statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu.
His reply comes amid growing concerns about rising food costs, inflation, and deteriorating living circumstances throughout the country, notably in the North, where insecurity and decreased agricultural production have exacerbated food shortages.
The First Lady had just started distributing rice and cash assistance to poor households across the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory in preparation for the Eid-el-Kabir festival.
The project, carried out in partnership with the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Political and Other Matters, Ibrahim Masari, aims to mitigate the impact of economic hardship on underprivileged Muslim communities over the Christmas season.
Speaking at the flag-off event in Kaduna, Tinubu stated that the intervention symbolizes the spirit of sacrifice, compassion, and unity associated with Eid-el-Kabir and that distribution will be handled by state coordinating committees to guarantee that the items reach their intended beneficiaries.
However, Atiku criticized the idea, calling it a “subtle weaponization of hunger” and a political ploy.
He said, “What Nigerians are witnessing today is the tragic normalization of poverty under the administration of President Bola Tinubu. Families can no longer afford basic meals, inflation has ravaged household incomes, and millions are being pushed daily into extreme deprivation.
“Yet, instead of addressing the structural causes of this crisis, the government has chosen the path of optics—distributing food in carefully choreographed ceremonies while the underlying suffering deepens.”
Continuing, the African Democratic Congress’s chieftain claimed that since 2023, farmers in the North have seen declining production as a result of policy failures and rising insecurity, forcing people off their fields and undermining food supply networks.
He said that rather than addressing these underlying issues, the government and its allies are leveraging the resulting misery by using food distribution as a political instrument.
“Ironically, the same government and its promoters now seek to exploit the resulting hardship by turning food into a campaign tool. What the North truly needs is genuine, sustainable food security policies—not campaign lunch packs wrapped in party insignia.
“It is even more troubling that this pattern did not begin today. During Ramadan last year, the president’s son, Seyi Tinubu, embarked on a widely publicized distribution of food items across parts of the North—an exercise presented as charity but clearly designed to test the waters of this now entrenched strategy of politicizing hunger.
“What was then an experiment has now evolved into a full-blown policy of optics over substance. Let it be said without equivocation: Nigerians are not beggars to be pacified with periodic handouts while their livelihoods collapse,” he stated.
Atiku also called on Nigerians to reject what he termed the politics of survival and demand accountable leadership.
