Your Wrong Policies Have Continued To Cause Nigerians Untold Pain, Suffering – Atiku Fires Tinubu

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said the wrong policies of the Bola Tinubu administration have continued to inflict untold pain and suffering on Nigerians.

The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PD) stated this in a post via his official X handle on Sunday.

Atiku said Tinubu failed, at a meeting with State Governors in Abuja on Thursday, to show any concrete policy steps that his administration is taking to contain the crises of currency fluctuation and poverty that face the country.

He said the Tinubu government has demonstrated sufficient poverty of ideas to address the economic hardship and failed to listen to experts who have been offering ideas on how to resolve the crisis.

He wrote: “At a meeting called at his instance on Thursday to address the Foreign Exchange crisis and the problem of economic downturn, among others, Bola Tinubu failed, yet again, to showcase any concrete policy steps that his administration is taking to contain the crises of currency fluctuation and poverty that face the country.

“Rather, he told the country and experts who have been offering ideas on how to resolve the crisis that he and his team should not be distracted and allowed time to continue cooking their cocktail that has brought untold hardship to the people of Nigeria. I don’t agree with that.

“The wrong policies of the Tinubu administration continue to cause untold pain and distress on the economy and the rest of us cannot keep quiet when, clearly, the government has demonstrated sufficient poverty of ideas to redeem the situation.

“If the government will not hold on to their usual hubris, there are ways that the country can walk out of the current crisis.”

The former vice president said he had offered policy prescriptions that would rescue the country from getting into the mess the country is currently in right now.

He said Tinubu’s new policy foreign exchange management policy was hurriedly put together without proper plans and consultations with stakeholders.

Atiku adds that the government failed to anticipate or downplay the potential and real negative consequences of its actions.

He added: “After a careful assessment of the state of our economy at the twilights of the last administration, I knew full well that the economy of the country was heading for the ditch and came up with a number of policy prescriptions that would rescue the country from getting into the mess that we are currently in.

“Those ideas, encapsulated in my policy document titled: “My Covenant With Nigeria.”

“These are enough reasons for Nigeria to seek to have greater control of the market, at least in the short to the medium term when convergence is expected to be achieved. 

“Tinubu’s new policy FX management policy was hurriedly put together without proper plans and consultations with stakeholders. The government failed to anticipate or downplayed the potential and real negative consequences of its actions.

“The Government did not allow the CBN the independence to design and implement a sound FX Management Policy that would have dealt with such issues as increasing liquidity, curtailing/regulating demand, dealing with FX backlogs and rate convergence.

“I firmly believe that if and when the Government is ready to open itself to sound counsels, as well as control internal bleedings occasioned by corruption and poorly negotiated foreign loans, the Nigerian economy will begin to find a footing again.”