Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the policies of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, saying the government’s programmes “pauperise the poor and bankrupt the rich”.

Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, said Tinubu’s policies failed to create prosperity, noting that they created a hostile environment for businesses in the country.

He said this in a statement issued on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.

Citing the current inflation rate of 33.69 per cent, Atiku said: “President Tinubu’s policies do not create prosperity. Instead, they pauperize the poor and bankrupt the rich. They spare no one.

“Nigerian citizens, the majority of whom are poor, are going through the worst cost-of-living crisis since the infamous structural adjustment programme of the 1980s. The annual inflation rate at 33.69% is the highest in nearly 3 decades. Food prices are unbearably higher than what ordinary citizens can afford as food inflation soared to 40.53% in April, the highest in more than 15 years.

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“President Tinubu’s policies create a hostile environment for businesses, big or small. The private sector is overwhelmed by Tinubu’s dismal policies and overburdened by his failure to address the policy fallouts.

“The manufacturing sector, which holds the key to higher incomes, jobs, and economic growth, has been bogged down by rising input prices, higher energy and borrowing costs, and exchange rate complexities.”

The former Vice President noted that Nigeria, since May 2023, has lost many companies to other countries.

He said Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Procter & Gamble (P&G), Sanofi-Aventi Nigeria, Bolt Food, and Equinor, among others, exited Nigeria citing reasons including foreign exchange complexities, security concerns, and high operational costs.

Atiku added that President Tinubu’s foreign exchange policies had not had any positive impact on Nigeria’s foreign trade balance, contrary to policy expectations, saying: “In particular, the free-float and the resulting devaluation of the naira has not resulted in an appreciable improvement in Nigeria’s trade balance.

“President Tinubu’s policies have failed to attract foreign investments into the country despite all the posturing and media hype by the President’s men.

“Time is running out for the government, and Tinubu must act fast to save the economy.”

The Star