Amid the increasingly and fast unbearable inflation, the President Tinubu-led administration claimed Nigerians were enjoying the lowest cost of living in Africa.
This statement followed the criticism by the opposition’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, on Sunday, saying the current administration came in a controversial election “unprepared.”
Atiku claimed the that Tinubu administration has shown no capacity to deal with the adverse and disastrous impact of the subsidy removal on the people and their businesses, and described the new foreign exhange policy, which has led to a free-floating exchange rate as an uninformed, arbitrary, and chaotic initiative.
Furthermore, he stated that, “To mask their failures, BAT and his political appointees are busy blaming his predecessor in office for bequeathing a ‘dead’ economy.”
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga in response, opined that, “Atiku’s latest diatribe was another uncharitable commentary on the state of the economy and the efforts of Tinubu’s administration in remolding it for sustained prosperity.”
Recall that the administration had severally urged citizens who are first-hand benefactors of the inflation to take baby-steps in accomodating the pains of the subsidy removal and tax reform policies that would eventually “usher in an era of prosperity in the medium and long terms.”
Onanuga further excused the reality of Nigerians by expressing that the issue of fuel subsidy and multiple exchange were agreed upon to be fixed by all opposition leaders in the political landscape. Onanuga urged Atiku to be honest, because Tinubu inherited a weak economy.
Atiku considered “a weak economy” a familiar game popularised by former President Buhari while in office as a means to mask his failure while stating that it only reinforced what we already know: “BAT came into office unprepared.”
Essentially, the Tinubu-led administration has responded quickly to opposing voices or criticism of opposition parties while failing to address the underlying issue produced by its policies, which has caused inflattion amid the growing insecurity.