The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council has accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of disrespecting the office of the President by repeatedly addressing President Bola Tinubu by his first name. In a statement on Monday, the council’s spokesperson and Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, said Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, had fallen short of the conduct expected of a former Vice President seeking the country’s highest office.
The council described Atiku’s decision to call the President “Bola” as an unbecoming act of “self-imposed indiscretion”. Alake said that since losing the 2023 election, Atiku had “allowed political animosity and uncontrollable ambition to rob him of the statesmanship that should guide his public conduct and utterances.” He added that Atiku had chosen to become a model younger politicians “should never aspire to be like.”
The council, however, said it would not respond in kind. It directed party leaders, spokespersons, members and support groups to continue to accord Atiku the respect due to him as a former Vice President and presidential candidate. “Our campaign will focus on issues important to Nigerians,” the statement said, adding that the party would sell its programmes and the President’s record as he seeks a second term.
The first name has become a fixture of Atiku’s messaging over the past six weeks, almost always attached to the fuel price dispute. On September 1, his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, opened a rebuttal to the President with the line, “Bola, Nigerians know exactly whose policy you were attacking.” Shaibu was responding to a presidential statement that criticised proposals to cut energy costs without naming Atiku.
Atiku used the same approach in his Independence Day statement on October 1. Reacting to the government’s promise of lower transport fares from that date under the National Affordable CNG Transit Programme, he asked, “Bola, was this a Yahoo Yahoo promise?” He challenged the government to publish the routes covered, the old and new fares and the number of beneficiaries, adding that “Nigerians cannot board an announcement.” The government has maintained that fare reductions are already taking effect on several routes.
The exchanges sharpened after Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele announced a 30-day discount on petrol at NNPC stations on October 8, with priority for public transport operators. Atiku accused the President of borrowing his production subsidy proposal while dropping the elements that would make it work, and dismissed the measure as a “yahoo-yahoo subsidy”. He recalled that the President had called him ignorant of economic policy, before adding, “Bola, you see why it is good to go to school!”
That last remark carries an older edge. Questions over Tinubu’s academic records featured prominently in Atiku’s challenge to the 2023 election result, which the Supreme Court dismissed in October 2023 when it upheld Tinubu’s victory. Atiku has since filed a fresh suit questioning the President’s eligibility, which remains before the court.
The economic backdrop explains why both camps are fighting so hard over the same ground. Petrol now averages about ₦1,400 per litre, up from roughly ₦830 in February before the Middle East conflict pushed crude oil prices above $100 per barrel, an increase of about 69 per cent. Before subsidy removal in May 2023, the product sold for under ₦200 per litre. Headline inflation stood at 15.39 per cent in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, while food inflation was 19.57 per cent.
Labour has added its own pressure. The Nigeria Labour Congress has given the Federal Government until about October 23 to reduce petrol prices to their 2024 level and begin minimum wage negotiations. The NNPC discount is scheduled to end on October 31.
The row also carries a cultural dimension that Alake invoked directly, describing the APC as a party grounded in “African traditional values of respect”. In much of Nigeria, addressing a sitting leader by first name in public is widely seen as a breach of etiquette. Atiku, who turns 80 in November, is about five years older than the 74-year-old President.
The rivalry between both men is decades old and has been tested at the polls. In the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes against Atiku’s 6,984,520, a margin of 1,810,206. Peter Obi of the Labour Party came third with 6,101,533 votes. Atiku, who was also a candidate in 2007 and 2019, is now running on the ADC platform.
Atiku’s camp had not publicly responded to the APC statement as of Monday evening.