Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has blasted the handling of the nation’s economic challenges by President Bola Tinubu, saying that his initiatives are not only uninformed but are arbitrary and chaotic.
In a statement he issued on Sunday, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, also alleged that the president’s palliatives are anti-poor as he seemed to be lost, bewildered and overwhelmed.
The former vice president said from his actions so far, Tinubu was not prepared to assume office as president.
Atiku noted that the economy’s performance has been a subject of intense discourse among Nigerian citizens at home and abroad in recent weeks and months.
He pointed out that Nigerians are gravely concerned that Tinubu’s poor response to Nigeria’s economic challenges is setting the stage for a prolonged and deeper domestic economic crisis.
According to him, the president’s economic policies drawn from his renewed hope agenda are ironically dashing hopes, creating pain and causing despair.
He stated that 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.”
He added: “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.
“His 2024 budget is 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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“The question is, will they?”
