Atiku’s Ask AA publishes tough questions, but some answers leave gaps

When a Nigerian asked former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s new online platform to identify major public assets privatised under his supervision, including their buyers and sale prices, the response offered none of those details.

The answer instead referred the questioner to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the federal agency responsible for Nigeria’s privatisation programme, without identifying the assets, buyers or sale prices.

Another question asked whether Atiku would voluntarily publish his full asset material rather than merely file it with the appropriate authorities.

“I have never shied away from declaring my assets,” the response stated. It offered no commitment to public disclosure.

Both questions appeared on Ask AA, launched by Atiku on 15 October to engage Nigerians on his political record and policy proposals.

On 16 October, PREMIUM TIMES examined 100 publicly accessible answers and 160 supporting source panels, covering privatisation, public spending, corruption allegations, electoral promises and Mr Atiku’s record in office.

All 100 answers displayed at least one supporting source panel. Twelve were assessed as partly responsive because they left a significant part of the question unanswered.

The sample deliberately included difficult accountability questions and was not randomly selected. Its findings cannot be used to estimate how often incomplete answers occur across the entire platform.

Questions without specific answers

Atiku’s proposed financial support for domestically refined petrol was among the policies questioned.

Asked how much the subsidy would cost annually and where the money would come from, the platform cited domestic crude sales, fiscal stabilisation arrangements and measures to manage fluctuations in global oil prices.

It also proposed a spending cap in the national budget, without specifying the amount or providing an annual cost estimate.

A related answer on preventing subsidy fraud was more specific, proposing digital meters at refinery gates, verification of production volumes, supply-chain tracking, public reporting of subsidy payments and independent audits.

Mr Atiku’s age and possible presidential tenure also attracted scrutiny.

One user asked why Nigerians should not give younger politicians an opportunity and whether the former vice president would serve only one term if elected.

The response cited his experience in managing the economy and security.

“The second term is not an automatic entitlement,” it stated.

That was not an explicit one-term commitment.

Questions over historical accuracy

Two answers raised questions about historical accuracy.

On debt management, the platform stated:

“We were able to manage our debt well, paying off $30 billion of our foreign debt.”

Nigeria’s 2005 Paris Club settlement, a major part of the country’s debt-relief programme during Mr Atiku’s vice presidency, involved both debt cancellation and payments to creditors.

The Paris Club agreement records approximately $18 billion in debt cancellation and about $12.4 billion payable to creditors. The distinction also appears in British parliamentary proceedings.

The platform’s wording does not distinguish debt written off from money repaid, potentially giving readers a misleading impression of how the settlement was achieved.

The supporting passage displayed alongside the answer, from a document labelled Party Manifesto 2027–2031, discusses economic policy but does not substantiate the historical $30 billion claim. Whether the claim appears elsewhere in the complete document was not established.

Another answer concerning allegations involving the Petroleum Technology Development Fund incorrectly names the agency as the “Petroleum Development Trust Fund”.

Its correct name is the Petroleum Technology Development Fund.

The error also appears in the supporting source passage. It is, therefore, unclear whether it originated in the underlying material, an automated process or subsequent editing.

The answers raise further assertions about past investigations, their findings and the absence of prosecution. Those claims were not independently checked against the complete investigative and legal records.

Who actually answers the questions?

Atiku’s launch announcement presented Ask AA as a means for Nigerians to engage him directly, with support from his media team.

The website’s terms of use describe a system that also uses artificial intelligence to prepare responses from published documents. Questions not covered by those materials may be grouped for Atiku’s attention.

A published explanation states:

“Most answers are put together by an AI system from those documents and checked against them before you see them.”

It adds that Atiku prepares answers when his published mate,rial does not cover a question.

The website does not identify who performs the checks, whether every answer receives human review or which responses Atiku personally writes or approves.

Eleven of the 100 sampled answers cited supporting material labelled “candidate-approved”. That label describes the claimed status of the material, not proof that Atiku personally wrote or approved the displayed answers.

The source excerpts allow readers to compare answers with cited passages, although complete copies of the underlying campaign documents were not independently authenticated.

Some displayed passages contained prepared questions and responses. Their presence does not establish that public questions were fabricated or submitted before the platform’s launch.

How does Ask AA compare with other platforms?

Ask AA is not the first digital engagement initiative associated with Atiku’s political campaigns. In February 2019, TheNiche reported testing an earlier service, Ask Atiku Yourself, which allowed users to select preset questions and receive matching video responses. That service differed from Ask AA’s searchable collection of public answers and supporting source excerpts.

Another platform, Ask President Tinubu, bears City Boy Movement branding and features a voice agent called Temi, which discusses the president’s administration. In three recorded conversations with PREMIUM TIMES, including two complete rounds of six accountability questions, Temi responded to enquiries about petrol subsidy savings, public spending, security and policy targets.

Twice, the agent claimed that removing the petrol subsidy had freed up nearly $10 billion that would otherwise have been borrowed. It attributed the figure to the administration’s published records but provided no specific document, reporting period or calculation. Asked for official records showing how the savings had been spent, Temi acknowledged that it lacked a detailed breakdown, referring instead to government programmes and broader fiscal outcomes.

The agent also supplied estimates of reductions in terrorism-related deaths and mass kidnappings between 2023 and 2024, without providing specific documentary references for independent verification during the conversations.

Its responses differed when asked to identify an administration policy that had not achieved its stated target. In one conversation, Temi discussed the government’s target of one million compressed natural gas vehicles by 2027, noting that implementation was ongoing. In another, it declined to assess policy shortcomings, saying its role was to explain the administration’s record rather than identify failures.

When challenged about the difference, Temi maintained that it had given the same response on both occasions, although the earlier recording showed that it had discussed the CNG target. In a subsequent conversation, it again mentioned the CNG programme and ongoing coastal highway construction, while acknowledging that it had no compiled list of missed targets.

Neither an unfinished project nor a 2027 target that has not yet been reached necessarily establishes that the government has missed a deadline.

Asked for documentary evidence, Temi referred to an administration compendium but could not provide a direct link. It offered human follow-up, an option PREMIUM TIMES did not pursue.

The recordings establish that Temi can respond to spoken questions under the conditions tested, but do not establish the service’s overall accuracy or consistency.

Unlike Ask AA, which publishes searchable questions and supporting source excerpts, no comparable public answer archive was identified on the Tinubu-related platform’s inspected interface. Whether completed conversations are stored or made publicly accessible elsewhere remains unknown. The platform’s launch date, legal operator, funding and formal relationship with the presidency have not been independently established.

The federal government also introduced GovGuide Nigeria in May 2026, through the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy in partnership with Meta. GovGuide provides information about government services rather than a presidential candidate’s personal political record.

These initiatives differ in purpose, operation and the information available for public scrutiny. Their existence does not establish that Ask AA introduced Nigeria’s first political question-and-answer platform.

What happens to users’ information?

Ask AA’s privacy notice, dated 14 October, identifies Intingo AI Technologies as the platform’s operator for the Atiku campaign.

The initial question form did not require names, email addresses or telephone numbers. The website also offers optional contact and survey features.

According to the notice, optional demographic survey responses are aggregated to show which groups ask about particular topics. The resulting counts may be used for campaign planning, including deciding which issues Atiku and his team address.

The notice says participation is optional, survey answers are not linked to submitted questions or contact details, and only aggregate counts are retained.

These are the platform’s published safeguards. PREMIUM TIMES did not independently examine the underlying database or test how the information is stored and used.

The policy sets out different retention arrangements.

Questions will be retained until 31 December 2027 and then reviewed, rather than automatically deleted on that date.

Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are described as remaining in security logs for 14 days, while optional email addresses are to be deleted after answer notifications, no later than 90 days.

For WhatsApp notifications, the notice promises to remove the link between a telephone number and a question within 90 days. It does not expressly state that every copy of the number or associated message will be erased by then.

The platform identifies third-party providers involved in AI responses, speech, translation, messaging and website delivery. It also acknowledges that some information is processed outside Nigeria.

Under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, organisations processing personal data have obligations concerning lawful processing, transparency, individual rights and international transfers.

The published arrangements leave questions about data-controller responsibilities, processing and retention safeguards. The examination did not establish a breach of the law.

Language access and response times

Ask AA offers English, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.

During desktop testing, headings and form controls changed when the three Nigerian languages were selected.

The main privacy and terms documents, however, remained in English on the tested routes. One public answer also retained its English text across the three language selections.

The test did not cover every answer or assess translation quality and mobile-device accessibility.

The platform provides public search and question-tracking interfaces, but PREMIUM TIMES did not submit a question or test the tracking of a new submission.

The 100 captured answer pages lacked reliable paired submission and response timestamps.

Without those records, it was not possible to calculate average response times, determine the proportion of submissions answered or independently verify Atiku’s reported claim that the platform received more than 1,000 questions within 30 minutes of launch.

READ ALSO: Atiku launches ‘Ask AA’ platform, says it received 1,000 questions in 30 minutes

Campaign and technical team contacted

PREMIUM TIMES contacted Atiku’s campaign spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, and the Ask AA technical team on Friday, seeking clarification on the findings.

The campaign was asked about privatisation records, public asset declarations, presidential tenure, the proposed petrol subsidy, the debt-settlement claim, the PTDF error and Mr Atiku’s personal involvement in preparing answers.

Questions to the technical team covered AI verification, source authentication, moderation, response statistics, language access and personal-data safeguards.

Their responses were still awaited when this report was prepared.

Ask AA has made questions about Atiku’s political record publicly accessible, including those concerning privatisation, corruption allegations and his policy proposals.

But several answers examined by PREMIUM TIMES did not supply the records, financial figures or commitments specifically requested. For Nigerians seeking to scrutinise a prospective president, the ability to ask difficult questions matters. So does the ability to verify the answers.