Former Vice President and 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, asserted on Sunday that the unification of the exchange rate was hastily implemented by President Bola Tinubu without proper plans and consultations.
Shortly after his inauguration in May 2023, President Bola Tinubu reviewed the currency swap policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He said the application of the currency swap by the apex bank was too harsh considering the number of unbanked Nigerians.
He said a unified exchange rate would power the economy.
Contrary to what Tinubu promised, the current realities in Nigeria show that this policy has led to inflation and hunger in the country.
Atiku, in a statement on Sunday, said he was not shocked by the impact of the Tinubu government’s policies on the Nigerian economy.
He said he knew that the economy of the country was heading for the ditch at the twilight of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The former Vice President added that Tinubu did not allow the apex bank to independently design the forex policy that would have eased the current economic hardship in the country.
He said, “Tinubu’s new policy FX management policy was hurriedly put together without proper plans and consultations with stakeholders. The government failed to anticipate or downplayed the potential and real negative consequences of its actions.
“The Government did not allow the CBN the independence to design and implement a sound FX Management Policy that would have dealt with such issues as increasing liquidity, curtailing/regulating demand, dealing with FX backlogs and rate convergence.
“I firmly believe that if and when the Government is ready to open itself to sound counsels, as well as control internal bleedings occasioned by corruption and poorly negotiated foreign loans, the Nigerian economy would begin to find a footing again.”
Atiku’s statement reads further: “At a meeting called at his instance on Thursday to address the Foreign Exchange crisis and the problem of economic downturn, among others, Bola Tinubu failed, yet again, to showcase any concrete policy steps that his administration is taking to contain the crises of currency fluctuation and poverty that face the country.
“Rather, he told the country and experts who have been offering ideas on how to resolve the crisis that he and his team should not be distracted and allowed time to continue cooking their cocktail that has brought untold hardship to the people of Nigeria.
“I don’t agree with that. The wrong policies of the Tinubu administration continue to cause untold pain and distress on the economy and the rest of us cannot keep quiet when, clearly, the government has demonstrated sufficient poverty of ideas to redeem the situation.
“If the government will not hold on to their usual hubris, there are ways that the country can walk out of the current crisis.
“After a careful assessment of the state of our economy at the twilights of the last administration, I knew full well that the economy of the country was heading for the ditch and came up with a number of policy prescriptions that would rescue the country from getting into the mess that we are currently in.”
