Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), on Thursday, asked President Bola Tinubu to review his straight jacket devaluation of Nigeria’s national currency, the naira, and the hurriedly executed removal of subsidy on petrol which have impoverished millions of Nigerians in the last seven weeks since the President’s assumption of office.
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said it is painful that the Tinubu-led administration is totally disconnected from the masses and the harsh economic realities that over 200 million Nigerians have been subjected to in the last 50 days since the inauguration of the All Progressives Congress government.
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Since Tinubu unilaterally collapsed the multiple exchange rates on June 14, the naira has continued to take severe bashing From N472.50 to $1 at the Investors and Exporters window pre-rate unification, and N763 at the parallel market, oscillating between N740 and N800 per $1.
As a result, a litre of petrol suddenly jerked up to over N617 at pump price due to the forex increase. Rising inflation rates which the National Bureau of Statistics said hit 22.79% in June from the 22.41% recorded in May 2023 is alarming.
The report also showed that food inflation spiked to 25.25% on a year-on-year basis which is higher than the 20.60% recorded in June 2022.
HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “President Bola Tinubu must quickly revise his straight jacket devaluation of Nigeria’s national currency to save the Naira from crashing to the crisis point that the Zimbabwean currency. Tinubu must act fast before Nigeria gets to that Zimbabwean situation.
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“Tinubu must restore the people’s confidence in the financial system by naming a substantive CBN governor, and a minister of finance, and constitute a strong economic management team. It is not enough to declare state of emergency on food, or hand out N8,000 palliative to over 12 million households, the President must ensure that the high inflation stops.
“HURIWA also calls for comprehensive probe of the refineries and the humongous amount of public funds that went into the so-called turn around maintenance of the four refineries yet none is refining petrol making Nigeria to rely entire on imports which is a way to drive millions of Nigerians into desperate poverty.”