Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described Nigeria at 65 as a giant moving painfully slow on feet of clay, blaming decades of poor leadership and wasteful governance for the country’s current woes.

Atiku, in a statement issued by his media aide, Paul Ibe, to mark 2025 Independence Anniversary, lamented the “enduring excruciating pains” Nigerians are experiencing, ranging from insecurity, rising food scarcity, mass unemployment, to what he called a dangerous climate of hopelessness.

He said these challenges have been compounded by the insensitivity of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government.

“It is tragic that in a country blessed with immense human and material resources, millions of our people have been reduced to refugees and beggars in their fatherland,” Atiku said.

“Every responsible government holds the welfare and security of its citizens as supreme. But what we have today is an administration that has abandoned its people. Hunger is killing Nigerians, bandits are massacring communities, yet President Tinubu and his cabinet stand by, unmoved and uncaring,” he added.

Despite the grim situation, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) urged Nigerians not to lose hope, noting that 2027 offers an opportunity to reject bad leadership and reclaim the promise of a better future.

“The beauty of democracy lies in the power of the ballot. Oppressed and battered as our people may feel today, they will have the chance to sweep away this inept government at the next polls. That is the power no cabal can take away from the people,” he stated.