Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has criticised the All Progressives Congress-led government, saying Nigeria is not working and that Tinubu is a cocktail of trial-and-error economic policies.
Atiku said this as Bola Tinubu marks his first anniversary in office.
Speaking to PUNCH Online on Tuesday, Atiku stated that on May 29, 2023, President Bola Tinubu raised the hopes of Nigerians with his pledge to “remodel our economy to bring about growth and development through job creation, food security, and an end to extreme poverty.”
“Since then, Tinubu has also spoken about growing the economy at double-digit rates to US$1 trillion in six years, ending misery, and bringing immediate relief to Nigeria’s cost-of-living crisis. On listening to this, Nigerians must have breathed a sigh of relief after their experience with ex-President Buhari’s eight years of economic misadventure.
“Tinubu laid out no plans for the ‘remodelling’ of the economy but soon embarked on a cocktail of policies to achieve it. In May 2023, he eliminated PMS subsidies, and a month later, the CBN implemented a new foreign exchange policy that unified the multiple official FX windows into a single official market.”
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The former presidential aspirant under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku, also cautioned Tinubu to introduce policies that will better the lot of Nigerians.
“More policies followed in rapid succession: the tightening of monetary policy to reduce Naira liquidity, a hike in monetary policy rates, the introduction of cost-reflective electricity tariffs, and a cybersecurity tax.”
He also revealed four risks associated with Tinubu’s reform measures and their dire consequences on Nigeria’s medium- to long-term growth and development.
“First, President Tinubu’s policies do not create prosperity. Instead, they pauperize the poor and bankrupt the rich. They spare no one. Nigerian citizens, the majority of whom are poor, are going through the worst cost-of-living crisis since the infamous structural adjustment programme of the 1980s.
“Second, President Tinubu’s policies create a hostile environment for businesses, big or small. The private sector is overwhelmed by Tinubu’s dismal policies and overburdened by his failure to address the policy fallouts. The manufacturing sector, which holds the key to higher incomes, jobs, and economic growth, has been bogged down by rising input prices, higher energy and borrowing costs, and exchange rate complexities.
“Third, President Tinubu’s foreign exchange policies have not had any positive impact on Nigeria’s foreign trade balance, contrary to policy expectations. In particular, the free-float and the resulting devaluation of the Naira have not resulted in an appreciable improvement in Nigeria’s trade balance. Devaluation has not enhanced the competitiveness of local producers and has had no positive impact on exports of goods, primary or manufactured.”
The fourth recommendation, according to Atiku, is that “President Tinubu’s policies have failed to attract foreign investments into the country despite all the posturing and media hype by the President’s men. Exchange rate unification and free float of the Naira have not led to higher capital inflows (whether Foreign Direct Investment or Foreign Portfolio Investments), again contrary to policy expectations.”
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