By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: Presidential candidate of the African Drmocratic Congress ADC, Atiku Abubakar has said President Bola Tinubu’s decision to attack the media for reporting insecurity and economic hardship across the country is as absurd as blaming a thermometer for a fever, warning that denial does not change reality but merely postpones solutions.
Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Wednesday, said it was both astonishing and insulting that at a time when millions of Nigerians are struggling to survive, the administration has chosen to attack the messenger rather than confront the message.
“The latest comments from the Presidency reveal a disturbing disconnect between those who govern and the people they govern. Nigerians are enduring one of the most difficult periods in our recent history, yet instead of acknowledging their pain and outlining practical solutions, the government is attempting to persuade citizens that what they see, hear, and experience every day is somehow an illusion created by the media,” he said.
Atiku said the role of the media in a democracy is to amplify public concerns, not to praise those in power but to hold them accountable, and that blaming journalists for reporting insecurity and hardship defeats that constitutional purpose.
