Discuss alternative policy choices for Nigeria and stop being petty – OSHIOMHOLE tackles ATIKU

Monday, October 6, 2025 - Former Edo State Governor and Senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, has expressed sympathy for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar following his criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s recent condolence visit to Plateau State.

Oshiomhole, who spoke on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, said Atiku was politicising a matter that should command empathy and respect for the dead.

“I have sympathy for former Vice President Atiku for thinking that even in matters of death and honouring the dead, politics must be involved,” Oshiomhole said. “As an elder statesman, at his age, he should know better.”

The statement comes after the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party condemned President Bola Tinubu’s decision to visit Plateau State on Saturday to attend the funeral of Mama Lydia Yilwatda, mother of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda.

Atiku said Tinubu attended a social event in the North-Central state instead of visiting victims and consoling communities ravaged by insecurity.

However, Oshiomhole defended President Tinubu’s visit to Plateau to pay respects to the mother of the APC National Chairman, saying it was inappropriate to describe the gesture as insensitive.

“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,” he said.

Oshiomhole also recalled his time as a labour leader during Atiku’s tenure as Vice President under President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying Atiku’s camp often forgets its own record in governance.

“I was practically a one-man opposition when Atiku was Vice President, and they forget in a hurry what they did in office,” he said. “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.

“In politics, everything is seen through partisan eyes, but I think he should be more than that,” Oshiomhole added.