Your policies promoting despair, Atiku tells Tinubu
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in last year’s general elections, Atiku Abubakar, has, again, reiterated his stance on the President Bola Tinubu administration.
He had said the government owed Nigerians an explanation on the over a $3.3 billion emergency crude repayment loan secured by the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) on August 16, 2023.
In a fresh post on his X handle yesterday, the former Vice President noted that the state of the economy has, in recent weeks and months, been a subject of intense discourse among Nigerians at home and abroad.
He said: “Tinubu’s poor response to Nigeria’s economic challenges is setting the stage for a prolonged and deeper domestic economic crisis.
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“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 pressure 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 berated the administration’s 2024 budget proposal, describing it as lacking “concrete ideas and actions.”
He added that the President had demonstrated lack of capacity to deal with mounting challenges in the foreign exchange market.
According to Atiku, the free-floating of the Naira is implemented without proper management, adding that the initiative is “uninformed, arbitrary, and chaotic.”
He added: “His 2024 budget is a business-as-usual exercise, bereft of concrete ideas and actions that would support Nigeria’s journey towards 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.
“BAT 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.”
