The Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has asked Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, his All Progressives Congress (APC) rival, to come clean on his source of wealth.
During an interview with BBC Focus on Africa, on Tuesday, Tinubu had said he “inherited” real estate which contributed to his wealth.
The former governor of Lagos also likened himself to the United States billionaire, Warren Buffet.
“Are they enemies of wealth, if they are not enemies of wealth–investments do yield. I have an example of Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in America and the world. He started with stock buying and brokerage. I inherited great real estate, I turned the values around.”
But in a statement Phrank Shaibu, his Special Assistant on Public Communication, issued on his behalf on Sunday, Atiku challenged Tinunbu to come clean with his source of wealth.
“Interestingly, Tinubu had told a Lagos State House of Assembly committee that was set up to investigate his academic records in 1999 that he could not complete secondary school because his family was too poor.
“The Governor spoke about his difficult and traumatic youth and how he scaled the hurdles of life as a self-made man. After his primary education, the governor said he was admitted into secondary school but he could not further his education because of his poverty. The Governor thus had to engage in menial jobs before he proceeded to the United States of America in search of the Golden Fleece,” the House report read in part.
“So how did Tinubu, whose family was too poor to send him to school despite a free education policy at the time, inherit properties from the same family? This is obviously balderdash. Tinubu would do well to stop comparing himself with Warren Buffet whose source of wealth has never been linked to narcotics by US authorities.”
