Presidency, Atiku clash over Tinubu’s policies

By Tunde Opalana and Ukpono Ukpong

The Presidency and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar were on Sunday locked in verbal war over some of President Bola Tinubu’s policy choices.

Atiku threw the first salvo when he described some of Tinubu’s economic policies as “dashing hopes, creating pain, causing despair”, concluding that the President lacked capacity to mitigate effects of fuel subsidy removal.

Taking a swipe at the administration, Atiku said under Tinubu, Nigerians are wallowing in abject poverty, pains and despair as a result of untold hardship created by economic programmes and policies of the administration.

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The former vice president also condemned what he described as the ineffectiveness of Tinubu’s administration in handling myriads of the nation’s socio- economic and security challenges.

He accused the President of poor response to the nation’s challenges, thereby setting the stage for a prolonged and deeper economic crisis.

However, the Presidency, in a reaction through the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga accused Atiku of criticising without proffering alternative policy options.

The Presidency said Atiku was doing a poor job of his criticisms, describing his intervention as “pedestrian and uninformed on our economy and other matters of public concerns.”

It accused Atiku of being “uncharitable” with his comments on the state of the economy and the efforts of the Tinubu administration in remoulding it for sustained prosperity.

“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has certainly found a new hobby to keep himself busy, having failed to achieve his lifelong ambition of becoming the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He is increasingly carving for himself the role of opposition-in-chief to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his government.

“All the major candidates agreed that the fuel subsidy regime, which had become an albatross on the economy, must end. They all agreed that the multiple exchange rates must be fixed. Where President Tinubu and Atiku differed was in selling NNPC Limited and other national assets. Atiku went for this so he could sell these important national assets to his friends and cronies.

“President Tinubu removed the subsidy from Day One and announced moves to harmonise the exchange rates. Since then, he and his economic team have been working vigorously to harmonise the rates and also end the rampant and criminal arbitrage that the multiple windows allowed.

“President Tinubu acknowledged, on different occasions, that the reforms his government is implementing will cause immediate pains, but will usher in an era of prosperity in the medium and long terms.

“Minus Atiku, reputable local and international agencies who understand the situation the Tinubu administration found itself have commended the administration, having seen a policy trajectory that is clearly positive, realistic and sustainable.

“Atiku’s claims that the private sector is shrinking and that multinational companies are leaving our companies in ‘droves’ are not grounded on facts.

“His claim that the government’s policies have created intense cost of living pressures are also not grounded on facts as recent comparative cost of living indices show that Nigerians still enjoy the lowest cost of living in Africa.

“Instead of mouthing platitudes every time in a bid to earn cheap political mileage, Alhaji Atiku who presumes himself as the leader of opposition should tell Nigerians what he would have done better if he had been elected President,” the Presidency said.

It charged Atiku be honest enough to admit that President Tinubu inherited a weak economy, “which to all intents and purposes and to ensure the survival of Nigeria, needs a complete overhaul”

It continued, “The economy was plagued by decades of significant fiscal deficits, a low revenue base, high external and domestic debts, and huge debt service burden.

“The national budget Tinubu met in 2023 showed that 97 percent of revenue was to be spent on debt servicing, with little reserved for capital, thereby foreclosing growth and jobs.

“Confronted with this grim economic reality, President Tinubu faced a difficult choice of balancing the political and economic costs of reforms against the risks of economic recession. His government chose the former, to keep the economy afloat and set it back on the path of growth and prosperity.

“President Tinubu is focused on solving our economic and security challenges. The fiscal and monetary policies his administration is pursuing are delivering unprecedented value to investors on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Nigerian Stock Exchange is outperforming others in the world and is now the best, not based on bubble, but record profits by many listed companies.

“The administration has also embarked on comprehensive fiscal and tax policy reform that will drive speedy recovery and spur economic growth.

“Nigerians and the global investment communities trust the ability and competence of President Tinubu to deliver progress and shared prosperity.

“While President Tinubu and his able team are working very hard to make our country better, ensure our economy is stronger and more competitive, Atiku Abubakar and his cohorts may continue to belly ache.

“However, they cannot stop the serious work of nation-building already set in motion by President Tinubu.”

But Atiku, who posted on his verified X handle, insisted 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 observed that Nigerians are gravely concerned, and rightly so, “that Tinubu’s poor response to Nigeria’s economic challenges is setting the stage for a prolonged and deeper domestic economic crisis”

Atiku continued, “His economic policies, drawn from a so-called renewed hope agenda, are ironically dashing hopes, creating pain and causing despair. The private sector is shrinking by the day as small businesses are emasculated and as Multinational 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. 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.

“BAT 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. His initiatives are literally uninformed, arbitrary, and chaotic. BAT’s palliatives are too mean, pitiable, and contemptuous of the poor. He 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. 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.

“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 question is, will they?”