By Ammar Muhammad Rajab DAILY STRUGGLE Newspaper reports that the ex-vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has criticized the economi...
By Ammar Muhammad Rajab
DAILY STRUGGLE Newspaper reports that the ex-vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has criticized the economic strategies of the administration led by President Bola Tinubu, stating that they have shattered the aspirations of Nigerians.
Atiku, who emerged as the second in the 2023 presidential election, pointed out that the economic policies and strategies of Tinubu's leadership were diminishing small businesses and prompting multinational companies to withdraw their activities from the country extensively.
President Bola Tinubu upon assuming office, had announced the removal of fuel subsidy as well as floated the Naira against the Dollar in the foreign exchange market as part of his reforms to overhaul the economy.
While these actions of President Tinubu have been widely praised by the international community, they have resulted in extensive hardship among Nigerians. The price of petrol has tripled, and the value of the naira has remained above N1,000 at the official rate.
The ex-vice president made this extensive criticism on Sunday on his X account (formerly Twitter), stressing the necessity for Tinubu to consider alternative solutions to tackle the economic difficulties in the nation “before the economy sinks deeper into the abyss.”
“The economy’s performance has, in recent weeks and months, been a subject of intense discourse among Nigerian citizens at home and abroad.
“Nigerians are 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.
“His 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 Multi-National 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,” he said.
Atiku also scolded the administration’s 2024 budget proposal, describing it as lacking “concrete ideas and actions.”
He further added that the President has demonstrated a lack of capacity to deal with growing challenges in the foreign exchange market.
Atiku stated that the decision to allow the naira to float freely lacked proper management, asserting that the initiative was “uninformed, arbitrary, and chaotic.”
“BAT (Bola Ahmed 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.
“BAT’s palliatives are too mean, pitiable, and contemptuous of the poor. He seems genuinely lost, bewildered, and overwhelmed,” he added.
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