'There is hunger in the land': Atiku knocks Tinubu over policies

Nigeria’s opposition People’s Democratic Party Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, addresses a press briefing on the outcome of the 2023 Nigeria General Elections in Abuja, Nigeria on March 2, 2023. – The two major defeated candidates in Nigeria’s disputed election on Thursday challenged the victory of ruling APC party’s Bola Tinubu, with one rival appealing to courts and the other calling the results “a rape of democracy”. (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON / AFP)

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to do something fast before Nigeria’s economy sinks deeper into the abyss.

Atiku made this call on Sunday via a post on his X handle amid complaints from Nigerians about the deteriorating state of the country’s economy.

According to Atiku, President Tinubu and his economic management team must swallow their pride, admit their missteps and failures, and follow those who know the terrain.

“They must act fast before the economy sinks deeper into the abyss,” the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) during the 2023 election said.

Atiku pointed out that the economy’s performance has, in recent weeks and months, been a subject of intense discourse among Nigerian citizens at home and abroad.

He further said that Nigerians are gravely concerned, and rightly so, that Tinubu’s poor response to the nation’s economic challenges is setting the stage for a prolonged and deeper domestic economic crisis.

Atiku added that Tinubuis economic policies, drawn from a so-called renewed hope agenda, are ironically dashing hopes, creating pain and causing despair.

The former VP said the private sector is shrinking by the day as small businesses are emasculated and as Multi-National 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,” Atiku stated.

“There is HUNGER IN THE LAND as basic commodities, including BREAD, are becoming out of reach for average Nigerians.

“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.”

Atiku stater that Tinubu 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.

According to Atiku, Tinubu’s initiatives as the President are literally uninformed, arbitrary, and chaotic.

He also spoke against Tinubu’s palliatives, saying they are too mean, pitiable, and contemptuous of the poor.

Atiku added that Tinubu in his position as President seems genuinely lost, bewildered, and overwhelmed.

“To mask their failures, BAT and his political appointees are busy blaming his predecessor in office for bequeathing a ‘dead’ economy,” Atiku said.

“This is a familiar game popularised by former President Buhari while in office. It reinforces what we already know: that BAT came into office unprepared.”