Former Nigeria’s Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has called on President Bola Tinubu to swallow his pride, accept the mistakes he had made all along and act fast to avert total economic collapse.
“Tinubu and his economic management team must swallow their pride, admit their missteps and failures, and follow those who know the terrain. They must act fast before the economy sinks deeper into the abyss.”
In a statement today, February 4, Atiku noted that Nigerians are now “gravely concerned, and rightly so, that Tinubu’s poor response to Nigeria’s economic challenges is setting the stage for a prolonged and deeper domestic economic crisis.”
According to Atiku, Tinubu’s economic policies, “drawn from a so-called renewed hope agenda, are ironically dashing hopes, creating pain and causing despair. The private sector is shrinking by the day as small businesses are emasculated and as Multinational Companies, confused and weary of the economy, leave Nigeria in droves.
“The intense cost of living pressures has created more misery for the poor in towns and villages. There is HUNGER IN THE LAND as basic commodities, including BREAD, are becoming out of reach for average Nigerians.”
Atiku, who was the Presidential candidate of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, said that President Tinubu’s 2024 budget represents “a business-as-usual exercise, bereft of concrete ideas and actions that would support Nigeria’s journey toward economic transformation – consisting mainly of wasteful expenditures to cater to a bloated Federal Government. “Budget 2024 will not facilitate growth and cannot empower our citizens to earn a living and live a decent life.”
He said that Tinubu has shown no capacity to deal with the adverse and disastrous impact of the new subsidy regime on the people and businesses and the new foreign exchange policy, which provides for a free-floating exchange rate.
“His initiatives are literally uninformed, arbitrary, and chaotic.”
Atiku criticised the palliatives which he described as “too mean, pitiable, and contemptuous of the poor.
“He seems genuinely lost, bewildered, and overwhelmed.
“To mask their failures, BAT and his political appointees are busy blaming his predecessor in office for bequeathing a ‘dead’ economy.
“This is a familiar game popularised by former President Buhari while in office. It reinforces what we already know: that BAT came into office unprepared.”
