Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25, 2023 election, has tackled President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his “Renewed Hope” economic policies, saying that the President has succeeded in dashing the hope of the citizens.
Atiku also said the policies were shrinking small businesses and causing multinational companies to exit the country in droves.
In a statement on Sunday, the former Vice President added that President Tinubu, with the economic hardship, had shown he has no capacity to tackle the various challenges facing the country.
“The economy’s performance has, in recent weeks and months, been a subject of intense discourse among Nigerian citizens at home and abroad. 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 Multinational 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,” Atiku said.
He 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.
“His 2024 budget is a business-as-usual exercise, bereft of concrete ideas and actions that would support Nigeria’s journey toward economic transformation – consisting mainly of wasteful expenditures to cater to a bloated Federal Government. Budget 2024 will not facilitate growth and cannot empower our citizens to earn a living and live a decent life.
“BAT 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, therefore, urged Tinubu to urgently seek help on ways to revive the “dead economy.”