A group, the United Nigeria Group (TUNG), has dismissed as ‘puerile rubbish and detachment from reality’ the allegation that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar “is too desperate for power”.

A pro-democracy group, “Make A Difference (MAD”, had described Atiku as “a man too desperate for power”.

The Executive Director of the group, Lemmy Ughegbe, also questioned Atiku’s integrity for leaving the APC to join the PDP.

Responding to the allegations, TUNG said the allegations by MAD are “trashy and devoid of substance for serious political debate”.

A spokesperson TUNG, Emenena Bright, said his group was amused by the sheer childishness of the issues raised by MAD against the former Vice President.

According to him, contrary to the claims by the pro-democracy group, Atiku is not desperate but passionate to fix Nigeria and get the country working again.

Mr. Bright explained that the state of the economy is central to the success of any democratic system.

He said an economy in which companies are dying and jobs are being lost massively while poverty is worsening daily is bound to create despair among voters.

He also said as a man who believes in excellence, Atiku chose to leave APC to seek an alternative platform to fix Nigeria and get it working again.

Mr. Bright said a situation where six million jobs were lost in two years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, is a betrayal of the voters who had looked forward to a better life.

He added that nobody would willfully vote themselves into hardship attended by weakening purchasing power and despair.

The TUNG spokesperson said APC has betrayed the voters by abandoning its campaign promises and rewarding them with greater poverty and crushing inflation.

According to him, the APC has run out of ideas and, as a result, the economy is abandoned to its fate.

He said Atiku is also worried that Nigerians are ever more divided than they have ever been since the Civil War, which poses a threat to their nationhood.

Mr. Bright said the way APC is running Nigeria is inconsistent with Atiku’s political beliefs founded on respect for Nigeria’s diversity.

He said the APC is more concerned with power than fixing Nigeria and that Atiku is determined to rescue Nigeria from its current fate of uncertainty, characterized by the ability to feed poor Nigerians.

The TUNG spokesperson urged the APC and its MAD collaborators to find something useful to do with their lives rather than bothering themselves daily about Atiku who is no longer a member of their party.