Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has taken a swipe at President Bola Tinubu’s implementation of the fuel subsidy removal and the unification of the exchange rate. He said while they are necessary, their implementation was faulty.
In a statement yesterday, Obasanjo’s spokesman, Kehinde Akinyemi, said his principal made the comment at a colloquium: “Nigeria’s Development: Navigating the Way Out of the Current Economic Crisis and Insecurity” at the Paul Aje Colloquium (tPAC) in Abuja on Saturday.
“Today, the government has taken three decisions, two of which are necessary but wrongly implemented and have led to the impoverisation of the economy and of Nigerians. These are the removal of subsidy, closing the gap between the black market and official rates of exchange and the third is dealing with a military coup in Niger Republic,” he said.
“The way forward is production and productivity which belief and trust in government leadership will engender. No shortcut to economic progress but hard work and sweat.”
Obasanjo also took a swipe at those against his position on the much-touted refurbished refinery at Port Harcourt, Rivers State, describing them as “sycophants and spin doctors”.
He declared that such people failed to remember that the attempt that was made in 2007 to partly privatise the refineries was made after a thorough study of the situation, hence his knowledge and a better understanding of the situation before making his decision late last year.
On what could be described as his position on 365 days of President Tinubu’s administration, the former president also posited ways out of the situation in the country, including a 25-year development agenda.
He said: “The economy does not obey orders, not even military orders. I know that. If we get it right, in two years, we will begin to see the light beyond the tunnel. It requires a change of characteristics, attributes, and attitudes by the leadership at all levels to gain the confidence and trust of investors who have alternatives.
