Former vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has slammed the economic plans of President Bola Tinubu-led administration, saying the administration’s policies were shrinking small businesses and causing multinational companies to exit the country in droves.
Upon assuming office, President Bola Tinubu had removed the subsidy on petrol as well as floated the Naira against the Dollar in the foreign exchange market as part of his reforms to revamp the economy.
Those developments though widely acclaimed by the international community have led to widespread hardship amongst Nigerians as the price of petrol has tripled while the naira has been tethering above N1,000 in the official window.
Reacting to this, the former vice president, who was the runner-up in the 2023 presidential election on his X account emphasized that Tinubu needs to explore other alternatives to address the economic challenges in the country “before the economy sinks deeper into the abyss.”
“The economy’s performance has, in recent weeks and months, been a subject of intense discourse among Nigerian citizens at home and abroad.
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“Nigerians are gravely concerned, and rightly so, that Tinubu’s poor response to Nigeria’s economic challenges is setting the stage for a prolonged and deeper domestic economic crisis.
“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 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,” he said.
Continuing, Atiku berated the administration’s 2024 budget proposal, describing it as lacking “concrete ideas and actions.”
He added that the President has demonstrated lack of capacity to deal with mounting challenges in the foreign exchange market.
According to Atiku, the free-floating of the naira was implemented without proper management, adding that the initiative is “uninformed, arbitrary, and chaotic.”
“BAT (Bola Ahmed Tinubu) 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,” he added.