Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, and former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, have attributed the difficult economic situation Nigerians are currently facing to the wrong policies of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In separate statements they issued yesterday, the two chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the economic situation of Nigerians had gone worse since the inception of the present administration led by Buhari.
Specifically, Fayose said Nigerians were suffering under the APC government because “the country is in the hands of wrong managers who do not know what to do and out of nepotism, not ready to be assisted by those who know.”
The governor said: “Presently, Nigerians are suffering, hungry and
angry because the APC federal government has run the country aground,”
adding that: “Nigeria has gone beyond recession, the economy has collapsed completely and painfully, those who should revive the economy do not have any clue as to what to do.”
In a statement issue in Ado-Ekiti by his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said Nigeria was experiencing the worst form of nepotism in the history of the country, saying: “Nepotism is the reason our president discarded competent people in his party that should be running the government with him and opted for his relatives, friends, in-laws and very close associates.
“The only qualification to hold key positions in the presidency is to
know a certain nephew of the president or be a member of his family, that’s is nepotism and what nepotism breeds is incompetence.
“The most influential person in the presidency today is said to be one Mamman Daura, who is a nephew of the president. Personal Assistant to President Buhari is said to be the son of Daura while the State Chief of Protocol is said to be married to Daura’s daughter,”
“It is also the height of nepotism that apart from just two, all security chiefs and heads of all the paramilitary agencies in Nigeria, as well as all the political-heads overseeing all the military and paramilitary arms and agencies are. from the North of Nigeria.”
He said President Buhari was obviously being tormented by fear of the unknown, which he described as the main reason people take to nepotism.
“As a leader, you don’t need to fear anything. But the moment a leader peeps into the future, realising that his lack of capacity could have consequential effects on him, such a leader will definitely resort to nepotism to protect himself.
“Also, the moment a government is unable to guarantee the existence of the people, it must resort to nepotism to protect itself and that is exactly what is being witnessed in Nigeria, especially with the lopsided appointments of security chiefs and key functionaries of the federal government,” he said.
While lamenting the parlous state of the country’s economy, Fayose said: “Most of those people who aided the emergence of Buhari must be having a rethink now, but it is too late!
“Interestingly, political affiliation has nothing to do with hunger, poverty and lack.
“Exchange rate was less than N200 to $1 when President Buhari took over power, as at today, it has gone beyond N400 to $1 and naira is still undergoing a free fall. One bag of rice was less than N8,000 as at May 2016, it is now N20,000. Kerosene is now beyond the reach of the masses.
“Nigerians voted for change because the APC promised them solutions to the country’s problems, but all we hear every day from the APC federal government are complaints upon complaints as if Nigerians elected a government of complaints.
“Obviously, the APC government has failed Nigerians and the president has resorted to putting his immediate family members and close associates in key government positions to protect himself from the fear of the unknown that has enveloped him.”
On his part, Fani-Kayode said in the last one year and two months, Nigeria had witnessed a reversal of all the milestone recorded by the county in the area of development and well-being of the people are concerned.
In a statement he issued in Abuja, the former minister who was the spokesman of the PDP presidential campaign organisation of former President Goodluck Jonathan, said the country was fast turning to a police state where freedom of speech is no longer guaranteed.
“In a year and two months, graduate and non-graduate unemployment has soared, banks and companies are retrenching, manufacturers are closing their factories and plants, industries are collapsing, farmers are complaining and businessmen and traders are crying. that is ‘Mai Chanji’for you. Yet it gets worse, ‘ he said.
Fani-Kayode said there was a consensus among economic and fiscal experts that if there is no major intervention through devaluation before Christmas, the “naira would have depreciated to, at best, N500 to a dollar.”
In one year and two months of ‘”President Buhari and his APC’s ‘Mai Chanji’, Nigeria has become a very different place to what it was before. Our nation has, so to speak, really been ”transformed.
“A few examples will suffice. a year two months ago, we were the largest producer of oil in Africa but thanks to ‘Mai Chanji’ that is no longer the case. A year and two months ago, we were the number one destination for foreign investment in Africa but thanks to “Mai Chanji” that is no longer the case.
“One year and two months ago we were the largest economy in Africa but thanks to “Mai Chanji” that is no longer the case. Sadly it gets worse.
“In the space of one year and two months the naira has depreciated from N160 to one dollar to N410 to one dollar.
“If there is no change in fiscal and monetary policy anytime soon, there is a consensus among economic and fiscal experts that by Christmas the naira would have depreciated to, at best, N500 to one dollar.
“One year and two months ago Nigerians could buy a bag of rice for N8000 but today they are paying N20,000 naira for that same bag of rice.
“As Pastor Reno Omokri, a former aide to President Jonathan said, if the minimum wage is N18,000 where are the people meant to get the money to buy rice and other basic food commodities for their families?
“One year and two months ago we were generating 5,000 megawatts of power for the electrical grid but today we are generating less than 2,000 megawatts.
“Again one year and two months ago we were making large sums of money from the export of our crude oil but today oil production has been reduced by one third and we are importing crude oil and refined products from the neighbouring nations of Niger and the Republic of Chad.
“One year and two months ago the Nigerian Stock Exchange was recovering and on the rise and our banking sector was flourishing and liquid. Today the stock exchange has lost N1.6 trillion in the last 14 months and our banks have become nothing but weak and barren money-lender stalls and pawn shops. That is “Mai Chanji” for you, “he said.