The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, chides President Muhammadu Buhari over mismanagement of the Nigerian economy which he said led to the exit of 500 companies from the country in the past three years of the government of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Atiku decried that despite the economic misfortune that Nigeria suffers, President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo earn luxury allowances to the detriment of the Nigerian workers who directly engage in service delivery.
The PDP Presidential candidate lamented that Buhari and Osinbajo receive hardship allowances amounting to 50 per cent of their annual basic salaries.
National Daily gathered that Atiku in a statement by his Media Campaign Organisation condemning the Presidency for denying that President Buhari accepted the N30,000 minimum wage proposal of the tripartite committee, remarked that approbation and re probation “is characteristic of the Buhari administration and that it is evidence of lack of leadership at the very top that is putting our economy in peril.”
Atiku had expressed that two of the world’s largest banks, HSBC and UBS, pulled out of Nigeria citing lack of policy stability as their reason. He maintained that Procter and Gamble gave the same reason when they pulled out of Nigeria in 2017. The PDP Presidential candidate decried that over 500 companies have pulled out of Nigeria in the three years that the Buhari administration has been in office, for similar reasons.
The statement read in part, “Just two weeks ago, two of the world’s largest banks, HSBC and UBS, pulled out of Nigeria citing lack of policy stability as their reason.
“This same reason was given by Procter and Gamble when they pulled out last year. In the span of the three years that this administration has been in office, more than 500 companies have pulled out of Nigeria for similar reasons. Nigeria under President Buhari has become synonymous with policy flip flopping.
“A government is only as reliable as its word and if its word is not reliable then nothing else about the government will be stable. This is why Nigeria suffered from a recession under this administration and it’s right now at risk of another recession.
“At the risk of repeating ourselves, we urge the Buhari administration to note that Nigerian workers are the goose that lays the golden egg that top members of this government are enjoying to the detriment of those laying the egg.
“We are aware that both President Buhari and Vice-President Osinbajo, despite living and feeding at the public expense, collect a hardship allowance of 50 per cent of their annual basic salaries, whereas, the long-suffering Nigerian workers, who are the main sufferers of the hardship caused by the incompetence of this administration, do not have any hardship allowance and are expected to live on the unliveable minimum wage of the Buhari government.
“We can only change this by paying our workers a living wage as opposed to the starvation wages now paid to them by the Buhari administration.”