Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has hit back at President Bola Tinubu over a remark about his university. Atiku, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, said his investment in education began before he entered public office. In the exchange over the Atiku Tinubu university row, he also brought up a 1993 U.S. court case involving Tinubu.
The row started on Saturday, November 7, 2026, at the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign rally in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Tinubu blamed some opposition figures, including Atiku, for the hunger in the country. Then he challenged the crowd. “Ask him how he built a university while in office as vice president,” he said, adding that Atiku was in charge of the economy at the time.
Atiku responded the same day through his Director of Strategic Communication, Phrank Shaibu. He said the president had given Nigerians a reason not to give him a second term. Moreover, he called the remark a desperate attempt to distract from what he described as the failures of the administration.
The ADC candidate then answered the question directly. According to Atiku, his investment in education predates his time in government. He said he began laying the foundation for ABTI Academy in 1993, and that the academy later grew into the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola, Adamawa State. Atiku served as vice president from 1999 to 2007, so his argument is that the project began six years before he took office.
Public records add some context. Wikipedia lists AUN as founded in 2003, with its first students enrolling in 2005, both during Atiku’s time as vice president. Atiku says the earlier ABTI project came first. Neither Tinubu nor Atiku has produced documents on the university’s funding in the reports reviewed.
Atiku then turned to Tinubu’s past. He said a U.S. court in 1993 ordered the forfeiture of funds in an account in Tinubu’s name, which he described as proceeds of narcotics trafficking or unlawful transactions. “My history is traceable,” Atiku said, and he called Tinubu’s own history “foggy.” He said Nigerians should focus instead on the cost-of-living crisis.
Tinubu’s camp has long rejected that reading of the 1993 case. The APC told the Presidential Election Petition Court in 2023 that the forfeiture of $460,000 came from a civil proceeding, not a criminal one. It said the money moved to the U.S. government under a settlement, and that Tinubu never admitted to drug trafficking or money laundering. In addition, the Court of Appeal ruled in 2023 that the order did not disqualify him. The court held that a civil forfeiture targets property, not the owner, and does not need a conviction.
Atiku also used the statement to attack the government’s economic record. He said the administration has pushed more than 79 million Nigerians into extreme poverty and accused it of ignoring hunger. He also said Tinubu cannot explain where he is taking the country. Tinubu, for his part, has said he is cleaning up a mess created by earlier governments, and he named Atiku among those responsible.
Meanwhile, the exchange shows how sharp the 2027 campaign is becoming. Both men have turned the contest into a fight over personal histories as well as policy. Voters now hear competing claims about wealth, public office and accountability, while documents on both sides remain limited in public view.
Tinubu’s camp had not answered Atiku’s latest statement in the reports Sojworldnews reviewed. Sojworldnews will update this story if the presidency or the APC responds.
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