Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is unable to mentally cope with the reality that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is now Nigeria’s President.
In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Friday, Keyamo described Atiku as “a pained and very bitter fellow,” attributing his recent criticisms of the President to deep-seated frustration over his 2023 election defeat.
According to Keyamo, Atiku’s pain stems from the fact that Tinubu “finally outsmarted him politically to get the most coveted position of President,” a reality he said the former Vice President “can’t mentally deal with.”
The minister said what Nigerians are witnessing in Atiku’s recent attacks against the President, “veiled as opposition heroics, is actually a higher form of DEPRESSION in the field of mental health called AGITATED DEPRESSION.”
Keyamo recalled that Tinubu was Governor of Lagos State at a time when Atiku was Vice President of Nigeria, and was generally regarded as politically behind Atiku in the pecking order of those who aspired to the presidency.
He noted that while both men left office in 2007 with their eyes fixed on the ultimate prize, “through a combination of fate, luck, divine interventions and political dexterity, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu finally clinched the Presidency AT THE FIRST TRY, as against his never-ending ambition since 1993.”
“That is where his pain, anger, despair and depression lie,” Keyamo said.
The minister, however, reminded Atiku that “power is given only by God Almighty, not by man,” citing Ecclesiastes 9:11, which he described as his favourite Bible verse since childhood.
The verse reads: “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
Keyamo urged Nigerians to pity the former Vice President rather than encourage him, saying those close to him should “actually administer anti-depressants on him.”
He warned that rather than win supporters, Atiku “will lose most intelligent ones by his recent posturing.”
The minister concluded that Atiku “urgently needs mental health support at this critical time as he finally peters into political oblivion.”
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