Tinubu Media Support Group tackles Atiku, Obi over coastal road project
Joel Oladele, Abuja
The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has strongly criticized the stance of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, regarding the Coastal Road project, labeling them as enemies of the Niger Delta and South-west regions.
The Chairman of the group, Barr. Jesutega Onokpasa, while disclosing this during a Media Parley in Abuja on Tuesday, condemned what he perceived as political maneuvering and attacks on President Tinubu’s family over the crucial infrastructure initiative.
Onokpasa expressed deep disappointment at the opposition voiced by Atiku and Obi, accusing them of prioritizing political agendas over the development of vital infrastructure that would benefit coastal communities and the nation at large.
“Those against coastal road are enemies of Niger Delta, S’West-TMSG
We would like to intervene on the matter of the Coastal Road, a legacy project of the Bola Tinubu administration.
“We find the take of both Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi on the project to be most deplorable to say the least.
“While they have been playing politics with a project of exceedingly great importance to many of our countrymen and women, they have taken their political rascality to a most absurd extent on this matter of the Coastal Road,” Onokpasa expressed.
He also decried the divisive tactics employed by some politicians, highlighting the absurdity of attacking each other’s families in political discourse. He emphasized the need for a more respectful and issue-focused approach to national development projects.
“Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has even gone to the extent of attacking family members of our President over the laudable project.
“Have we sunk so low that after attacking one another we start targeting each others children?
“Is that the stage we have reduced ourselves to in politics in this country?
“We start insulting each others wives and disparaging each others children? Good God!
“Seyi Tinubu is my son; how can I love the father without loving the son? That’s fake love.
“So when you see me, you smile but when you see my child you frown or scowl or you look left and right and if there’s no one looking you will harm my child?
“You’re a coward – you come and face me as a man; you don’t attack my children.
“Atiku Abubakar’s desperation is clearly beyond all norms of acceptable behaviour and just as his unachievable ambition is a complete waste of time.
“What God will do, He will do and what He will not do, He will not do, and, there is absolutely nothing any of us humans can do about that,” he noted.
The TMSG also questioned the logic of prioritizing other road projects over the Coastal Road, emphasizing the contributions of coastal regions to national income and development. He asserted that any opposition to the Coastal Road was tantamount to opposing the interests of the Niger Delta, South-west, and the entire nation.
“The Coastal Road is something most dear to the hearts of those of us who come from the litoral states of this country and we consider it a very big insult for the likes of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to oppose a project that ought to have been undertaken a long time ago that President Tinubu has decided to undertake as one of his core legacy projects.
“What is even this utter nonsense of fixing hinterland roads rather than building a coastal road? We should abandon the Coastal Road to construct one in Jada or in Agulu?
“How much have Jada or Agulu contributed to the income and development of Nigeria that they should have priority over the Niger Delta and the South-west?
“Any one against the Coastal Road is against the people of the Niger Delta and the South-west – indeed any such person is against our entire nation because the Coastal Road will end up tremendously benefiting our entire nation.
“This insanity of playing politics with everything must stop forthwith and must no longer be tolerated. You love me but you don’t love my children?
“If Bola Tinubu were to see absolutely any child of Atiku Abubakar today, our President would embrace him or her as his own flesh and blood.
“The same man who rehabilitated you politically and gave you a presidential ticket is the same man you can stoop so low as to attack his children?
“You are clearly not presidential material.
“May the long awaited dream of a coastal road come to fruition in this administration as one of, if not the chief legacy of President Bola Tinubu.” Onokpasa said.
