Atiku aide faults Onanuga over subsidy response

A media aide to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Eta Uso, has faulted the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, over his response to Atiku’s recent proposal on production subsidy.

Uso, in a statement on Saturday, said the Presidency’s response focused more on references to Atiku than on the substance of the policy proposal.

“We gave you a policy argument. Instead of engaging it intelligently, you reached for ‘veteran presidential candidate’ and recycled a claim your colleague had already pushed,” Uso said.

The controversy followed Onanuga’s reference to an earlier production subsidy policy during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, when Atiku was Vice-President, in his response to the former Vice-President’s current proposal.

Uso argued that the responsibility of a presidential spokesman was to explain and defend government policies rather than focus on an opposition politician.

“Your job should be to explain and defend your government’s policies,” he said.

He added that repeated responses from the Presidency to Atiku’s interventions could further draw public attention to the former Vice-President’s policy positions.

According to Uso, each response to Atiku’s proposals creates an opportunity for wider public discussion of the differences between the positions of the former Vice-President and the Federal Government.

“If HE Atiku can announce one policy idea and send the Presidency into a full day of rebuttals… then neither you nor I should pretend there is any confusion about who is driving the national conversation,” he said.

Uso said he remained open to further exchanges with Onanuga, arguing that continued official responses would keep Atiku’s proposals in the public domain.