Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, on Monday, responded to a statement by the presidency that he was envious of President Bola Tinubu, wondering how he could possibly envy a man inflicting pain on the people.
Describing wickedness as the president’s exclusive preserve, Atiku said Tinubu’s economic policies were killing Nigerians, and this should be his focus, rather than attacking the opposition.
In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku dismissed as inelegant and insipid the statement by the presidency on Sunday.
The statement said, “On July 8, 2024, Tinubu announced that import duty on essential goods, like food, would be lifted for 150 days. But over 120 days later, the policy is yet to take off, while Nigerians continue to die daily due to increasing costs, including food inflation, which now exceeds 40 per cent, the highest in decades.
“The brazen disobedience to a government policy by Tinubu’s appointees and the failure of the finance ministry to issue a gazette after over four months reflects the fatuousness, inanity, and the incompetence that characterises the Tinubu administration.
“Sadly, rather than focus on governance, they are preoccupied with verbally assaulting their opponents – Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi – while using compromised courts to foster crisis in the opposition. What a shame!”
Atiku argued that Tinubu’s abysmal performance in the last 18 months had made it clear to all Nigerians that he came into office unprepared, hence the many policy flip-flops that had so far characterised his tenure.
He added, “Tinubu was obviously unprepared for office. He acts first and thinks of the consequences afterwards. This was why he announced an abrupt removal of petrol subsidy without any cushions.
“After seeing the effect, he then hurriedly decided to push a CNG initiative, which even he and his ministers have not embraced, hence their refusal to use it.
“The CNG initiative has so far failed to fully kick-off because of a lack of gas infrastructure in most states. The result is that transport costs continue to soar along with prices of food.
“In his mid-term expenditure framework, he projected the exchange rate at N700/$1 in 2024 and N650/$1 by 2025. Rather than sack his economic advisers, he continues to live in a fool’s paradise, deceiving Nigerians about the FX reserve of $40 billion, when, in fact, the net reserves are less than 20 per cent of that.
“Let the CBN release its financial statements of 2023 if he is sure of his achievements.”
