The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, has criticised former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar for repeatedly referring to the President as “Bola”, describing the address as “the height of insolence”.

Dare made the remark in a statement on Saturday while reacting to comments by Atiku at a press conference in Abuja on Friday.

Atiku had urged Tinubu to adopt his proposal for government intervention to reduce the price of petrol, saying the President could rename the initiative and take credit for it if it would reduce the burden on Nigerians.

“Bola Tinubu should not be ashamed to do what is necessary to lower the price of petrol simply because Atiku Abubakar proposed a government intervention.

“He should just take the idea, rename it if he wishes, and even take the credit. What matters to me is that Nigerians pay less,” Atiku said.

Reacting, Dare said addressing a sitting President by his first name while giving instructions on how the government should operate amounted to political hubris.

“Alhaji Atiku’s manner of addressing President Bola Tinubu as Bola is the height of insolence. It is a clear descent into the abyss of unbridled desperation and an unraveling mind,” he said.

Dare added, “To seek to lecture a sitting president with the unbridled insolence of dropping his first name, petulantly barking instructions, and dictating how governance should be run within a truncated timeline is the height of political hubris.”

He also criticised Atiku’s comments on the economy, saying the former Vice-President was not in a position to lecture the administration on fiscal management.

“Nigerians do not need lectures on fiscal management from a political wanderer whose decades-long pursuit of the presidency has been defined by perpetual opportunism,” Dare said.

He defended the Tinubu administration’s economic policies, saying the President was undertaking reforms aimed at restructuring the economy.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is doing the heavy, foundational lifting required to restructure an economy crippled by decades of structural inertia and subsidy hemorrhaging,” he said.

Dare further questioned Atiku’s proposal for government intervention to reduce petrol prices, describing it as a political strategy aimed at gaining electoral advantage from economic difficulties.

“Atiku’s sudden conversion to the gospel of interventionism rings hollow. This is a desperate strategy by a perennial seeker of power who weaponizes transient national discomforts for electoral mileage,” he said.

The comments come a day after Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, also criticised Atiku for referring to Tinubu as “Bola” during the former Vice-President’s press conference.

Keyamo said the reference was “very disrespectful and discourteous”, arguing that the office of the President should be accorded dignity regardless of political differences.

Atiku, who is the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, has been positioning himself for the 2027 presidential election, while Tinubu is expected to seek a second term on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.