Abuja, Nigeria – The State Home has launched a pointed assertion urging former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to stop what it describes as “grand illusions and fantasies” concerning Nigeria’s financial and political panorama beneath President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Within the press launch, Bayo Onanuga, Particular Adviser to the President on Info and Technique, accused Atiku of harbouring envy and refusing to come back to phrases together with his electoral loss within the 2023 Presidential Election.
In line with the assertion, Atiku’s critiques of Tinubu’s administration have centered on financial and social coverage points, but lack a practical basis.
It additional states that Atiku’s latest proposal, “What We Would Have Performed In a different way,” disregards Tinubu’s multi-faceted reform programmes, which have been carried out with urgency to handle long-standing points inside the financial system.
Financial Reforms and Subsidy Financial savings
The discharge highlights Tinubu’s gas subsidy removing as a key victory, noting that it was a significant enabler of corruption inside the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Company (NNPC).
The federal government experiences that N5.4 trillion in financial savings shall be reallocated to infrastructure and social intervention programmes in 2024, an effort meant to profit Nigerians nationwide.
The administration additionally claims progress on state income technology, mentioning that Federal Inland Income Service collections practically doubled within the first half of 2024.
The press assertion underscores that as an alternative of outrightly privatising Nigeria’s 4 government-owned refineries, Tinubu’s administration is rehabilitating them in partnership with non-public sector managers, a mannequin they argue will ship extra steady and sensible outcomes than Atiku’s previous privatisation agenda.
Criticism of Atiku’s Financial Imaginative and prescient
The State Home critiques Atiku’s stance on subsidy removing, phased reforms, and overseas trade administration as insufficient. It argues that his proposal to keep up a “managed float” trade fee would introduce inefficiencies and pressure the Central Financial institution’s means to stabilise the foreign money, doubtlessly mirroring the failures of previous fastened trade fee programs.
Moreover, the assertion accuses Atiku of hypocrisy, pointing to alleged previous corruption circumstances involving his enterprise associates.
In response to Atiku’s overseas coverage options, the press assertion emphasises that the Tinubu administration has already enacted measures to guard probably the most weak, with initiatives together with money transfers, pupil loans, and the Presidential Compressed Pure Gasoline (CNG) Initiative.
Closing Remarks
The assertion concludes by urging Atiku to deal with constructive dialogue relatively than what it describes because the “politics of distraction.” It insists that President Tinubu is dedicated to addressing Nigeria’s urgent financial challenges and main the nation towards prosperity.
This marked escalation in rhetoric between the presidency and the previous vp underscores a deepening divide inside Nigerian politics, with both sides accusing the opposite of undermining progress in one among Africa’s largest economies.
