The African Democratic Congress (ADC) Presidential Marketing campaign Council has criticised Vice President Kashim Shettima for mocking former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s instructional background on the thirty second Nigerian Financial Summit in Abuja, as a substitute of addressing the hardship going through Nigerians.
In a commentary signed by way of its Director of Strategic Conversation, Phrank Shaibu, on Monday, October 26, 2026, the marketing campaign stated Shettima had a chance to give an explanation for why Nigerians are suffering to have enough money gasoline, shipping and meals, however selected to assault Atiku for attending the Kano College of Hygiene.
“Whilst Shettima debates faculty data, households are skipping foods, staff can not have enough money the adventure to paintings, and his executive calls their struggling reform,” the commentary stated.
*“What Is Shameful About Atiku’s Schooling?”*
The ADC argued that there used to be not anything shameful about Atiku’s schooling, noting that he finished secondary faculty, pursued additional coaching and constructed a profession via paintings.
“Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have travelled the similar highway. Their oldsters sacrificed to get them into the universities they may have enough money; they studied, labored and rose. Shettima checked out that combat and noticed one thing to chortle at,” Shaibu stated.
The marketing campaign became the scrutiny to President Bola Tinubu, urging Shettima to give an explanation for alleged discrepancies within the President’s educational data.
In keeping with the commentary, a report in Tinubu’s Chicago State College data lists him as having graduated from Executive Faculty Lagos in 1970, 4 years sooner than the varsity used to be established in 1974.
“Shettima must provide an explanation for how a person graduates from a faculty sooner than it exists, as a substitute of mocking Atiku for attending a faculty whose doorways had been open,” the ADC stated.
The marketing campaign additionally raised the problem of names, claiming that the NYSC certificates Tinubu submitted to INEC bears the identify “Tinubu Bola Adekunle,” a discrepancy Atiku has challenged in court docket.
It added that Tinubu’s Chicago State College paperwork stay the topic of litigation in the USA, and that questions raised about paperwork submitted for his election should be replied.
The ADC additional referenced the documented 1993 forfeiture in Chicago, bobbing up from a narcotics investigation, noting {that a} separate U.S. case regarding the liberate of data from that investigation stays a question of public hobby.
Responding to Shettima’s declare that Atiku desires Nigerians to “backslide into penury,” the ADC stated poverty is already the truth for lots of households.
It cited Global Financial institution estimates that almost seven in ten Nigerians will reside under its decrease center source of revenue poverty line in 2026, whilst 35 million other folks face acute meals lack of confidence.
“Poverty isn’t a long term danger to those households. It’s the existence they’re suffering via these days,” the commentary stated.
“A mum or dad opting for between shipping to paintings and meals for the youngsters does no longer want Shettima to give an explanation for penury. His commentary displays how a long way this executive has drifted from the folks it serves.”
The marketing campaign stated Atiku has proposed a focused, capped and independently audited subsidy tied to petrol delicate in Nigeria.
“If Shettima thinks it can’t be funded, he must display his figures and be offering a greater strategy to decrease costs. Insulting Atiku won’t fill a cooking pot, pay a bus fare or put gasoline in a tank,” Shaibu stated.
The ADC concluded that Atiku has not anything to be embarrassed about, and accused Shettima of opting for to chortle at fair schooling whilst the country is weighed down by way of starvation.
“After 3 and a part years within the saddle, Nigerians have noticed the sour penalties of permitting a person with a cast schooling to turn into President. Tinubu is an error the Nigerian citizens made in 2023, and on January 16, 2027, the entire nation will likely be impatient to right kind that error,” the commentary stated.
“Shettima and Bola is also too a long way got rid of from bizarre properties to listen to the anger development inside of them. The ones properties can have a voice on the poll field. Nigerians will resolution the Vice President’s mockery and his boss’s document with their votes.”
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