Atiku to APC: Unlike Your Leaders, No One Needs Forensic Experts and Investigators to Know My Age

By Franklin Adole
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has fired back at the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), warning the party to stop obsessing over his political decisions and instead focus on the true identity and age of its own leaders.

Atiku, who recently formalised his move to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said the Lagos APC’s reaction exposed what he described as its “hypocrisy, selective amnesia, and intellectual laziness.”

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku dismissed suggestions that his political relevance had diminished.

“The attention of the Atiku Media Office has been drawn to yet another hollow, ill-considered statement issued by the Lagos State chapter of the APC,” the statement said. “As usual, the Lagos APC displayed its trademark hypocrisy, selective amnesia, and intellectual laziness.”

Atiku stressed that unlike some leaders in the ruling party, every aspect of his personal history is open and verifiable. “His age is known, his parents are known, his educational records are intact, and his public life can be traced from childhood to national prominence without the need for forensic experts, private investigators, or sworn affidavits to reconcile conflicting identities,” the statement read.

He contrasted this with what he described as APC’s “paymaster,” whom he claimed is “well past 90” and still clinging to power. “If Atiku, a far healthier, mentally sharper, and globally respected statesman, is ‘too old’ to aspire at 79, then what do we call a visibly frail leader whose true age remains one of the country’s best-kept mysteries?” Shaibu queried.

Accusing the APC of protecting a leader with “switched names, ages, origins, and educational histories,” Atiku argued that party mobility is legitimate political strategy, while “identity fraud is not.”

He described his decision to align with the ADC as one driven by conviction and shared democratic ideals, saying only those who treat parties as “private estates” would find it strange.

“Atiku Abubakar remains the single most formidable, experienced, and prepared leader in the country today,” the statement added, insisting that his acceptance nationwide continues to expose “the emptiness of the APC’s propaganda.”

He said if the APC was searching for a politician defined by “restlessness, panic, and desperation,” it needed only to look inside the Villa.

“Rather than issuing unintelligent statements,” Atiku said, the Lagos APC should explain the collapsing economy, rising insecurity, hardship, and the “human suffering that has become the lasting legacy” of the ruling party.