Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday, declared that President Bola Tinubu after one year in office was yet to fulfill his promises.
He accused the Tinubu administration of producing policies which did not create prosperity but pauperised the poor and bankrupted the rich.
Atiku made the declaration in a statement when he reviewed Tinubu’s administration over the past year, adding that the government of the All Progressives Congress failed to show it y plans for economic remodeling, but instead implementing a mix of policies to address it.
Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections told Tinubu to undertake a comprehensive review of the 2024 “within the new reform framework; undertake a comprehensive review of the Social Investment Programme to mitigate some of the impact of these policies on the most vulnerable households and refrain from any attempt to further pauperise the poor by introducing new taxes or increasing tax rates.
The APC government should come out clean on the fuel subsidy regime, with the fiscal commitments and benefits from the fuel subsidy reform and the impact on the Federation Accounts and finally to tackle security headlong.
He said 12 months later, Tinubu’s promises of economic growth and alleviating misery remained unfulfilled.
“Tinubu laid out no plans for the remodelling of the economy but soon embarked on a cocktail of policies to achieve it.
“In May 2023, he eliminated PMS subsidies, and a month later, the CBN implemented a new foreign exchange policy that unified the multiple official FX windows into a single official market.
“More policies followed in rapid succession: the tightening of monetary policy to reduce Naira liquidity, a hike in monetary policy rates, the introduction of cost-reflective electricity tariff, and a cybersecurity tax.
“Predictably, 12 months on, Tinubu’s pledge of growing the economy and ending misery remains unfulfilled. His actions or inactions have significantly worsened Nigeria’s macroeconomic stability.” He said.
According to the former vice president, “Nigeria remains a struggling economy and is more fragile today than it was a year ago. Indeed, all the economic ills – joblessness, poverty, and misery – which defined the Buhari-led administration have only exacerbated.
“Africa’s leading economy has slipped to the fourth position, lagging behind Algeria, Egypt, and South Africa.
“Citizens’ hopes have been dashed and not renewed, contrary to the propaganda of the administration, as Nigeria’s economic woes have multiplied,” he added.
“The annual inflation rate at 33.69 per cent is the highest in nearly three decades. Food prices are unbearably higher than what ordinary citizens can afford, as food inflation soared to 40.53 per cent in April, the highest in more than 15 years.
“Nigerian citizens have to pay 114 per cent more for a bag of rice, 107 per cent more for a bag of flour, and 150 per cent more in transport fares relative to May 2023.
“Today, in some locations, motorists are paying 305 per cent more for a litre of fuel. Yet, on a minimum wage of the equivalent of $23 per month, Nigerian workers are among the lowest wage earners in the world,” he stated.
He said the courage of the president to remove subsidies on PMS did not translate to the compassion to raise the minimum wage.
“Tinubu had the ‘courage’ to remove subsidy on PMS and impose additional taxes on his people but lacked the compassion to raise the minimum wage or implement a social investment programme that would reduce the levels of vulnerability, and deprivation of workers and their families,” he lamented.
