LP alerts over Tinubu’s ‘collateral damage’ of unplanned fuel subsidy removal, forex unification
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Bola Tinubu is coming under increasing raps thick and fast from his base in the South West, with Tunde Bakare, Citadel Global Community Church Overseer, knocking the President at the weekend for ruling by “impulse” and by “Emilokan” policies.
Bakare said “Emilokan” (it is my turn) connotes an imperial presidency without regard to the plight of citizens and without the rule of law, zeroing in on the case of suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who is being detained against court order.
Bakare, a member of Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress (APC), was delivering his “State of the Address” on Sunday, in which he also cited Tinubu’s removal of fuel subsidy without planning as well as war mongering in Niger Republic without first pressing for dialogue, via reporting by Arise Television on Monday morning.
Akin Osuntokun, Director General of the Obi-Datti Campaign Organisation, also took a swipe at Tinubu, saying he has plunged Nigeria further into darkness in less than three months of his being in the saddle in the Villa.
Afenifere has previously voiced concern over Tinubu’s policies and their implementation.
Tinubu won’t be allowed to rule like ‘Emir’ Buhari
The increasing criticism from the South West further reminders Tinubu that he cannot afford to adopt the leadership style of Muhammadu Buhari, his irresponsible predecessor who ruled Nigeria like an Emir, tone deaf and as if without accountability to God or citizens.
Speaking for the Labour Party (LP), Osuntokun alerted Nigerians on consequences of experimental leadership and governance by stealth without imagination, deep thinking or concrete ameliorative policies which the All Progressives Congress (APC) has allegedly foisted through a “stolen mandate.”
He made the points in a statement he issued in Abuja, which appraised Tinubu’s 66 days in power.
He said the first blunders that visited collateral damage on Nigerians were the unplanned and ill-thought removal of fuel subsidy and unification of exchange rates; uncoordinated and confusing policy announcements, which have led to exponential increase in prices of all goods and services, especially food and basic consumables.
In his view, the situation is worsened by decline in National Savings Rate and erosion of disposable incomes of Nigerians, thereby increasing poverty and insecurity.
Osuntokun also noted unimaginable extravagance and exponential increase in the cost of governance exemplified by appointments of a litany of Ministers and aides, and a most unexamined desire to go to a clearly avoidable war with Niger Republic.
“The list is unending, confusing, most unfortunate, and lamentable. There is a clear lack of grasp of the undergirding ethos of good governance predicated on short, medium, and long-term stimulus strategies and policies,” he lamented.
“In their own words, the APC-led government admitted their error of declaring subsidy removal and currency unification without adequate plans to mitigate the potentially huge consequences, as Nigerians are now witnessing in anguish.
“For APC and its leaders, who claim to have long prepared for the job of presiding over Nigeria’s administrative affairs to commit such a blunder, at this critical troubling period of our nation’s history, is inexcusable.”
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Mere promises without adequate plans
“The magnitude of such a mistake which has debased and threatens to wipe out businesses with unprecedented worsening of living conditions of Nigerians cannot be wished away with mere promises without adequate plans,” Osuntokun added, per reporting by The Guardian.
“While we agree that ‘After Darkness Comes the Glorious Dawn’, what the APC government clearly reminded Nigerians is that the darkness was caused by the same APC in the last eight years with the gang still the same and bigger now.
“Unfortunately, as APC cannot give what it does not have, the darkness is clearly getting darker and expanding with the largely cosmetic, uncoordinated, and confusing announcement of policies without proper thinking, planning, and execution strategies.”
