TheCable

Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state governor, has again criticised President Muhammadu Buhari, saying the nation’s currency was stronger during the regime of Goodluck Jonathan, the immediate past president.  

Noting that the “dollar has gone double since Dr Goodluck Jonathan left office, with US Dollar exchanging for N350 as at today”, he accused the president of lacking the mental capacity to proffer solutions the economic challenges confronting the country.

Fayose described the president’s foreign trips as a sign of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians, and called on Nigerians to prevail on Buhari to stay home and govern.

He said with Buhari, “Nigeria is definitely having a square peg in its round hole”, alleging that the president had neither formed an economic team nor articulated his policy direction after nine months of taking power.

“It is the height of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians that the president, who just returned from trips to France and United Kingdom, will again be traveling to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar from February 20 to 27, spending seven days out of Nigeria in what they called ‘three-nation tour,’” read a statement issued on Fayose’s behalf by Lere Olayinka, his special assistant on public communications and new media.

“Travelling from one country to another won’t solve any of our problems because I have not seen where foreigners assist any nation to develop. The president should know that Nigerians are suffering and they do not need their President to junket around the world, to alleviate their sufferings.

“Nigerians should prevail on President Buhari to stay at home and govern the country… It is worrisome that President Buhari does not have any economic team and there is no policy direction yet, despite spending close to nine months in office.

“The implication of the president’s obvious lack of the required mental capacity to tackle the nation’s economic problems and the resultant effects are human right abuses, prices of goods and services skyrocketing, daily retrenchment of workers, folding up of businesses, states finding it difficult to pay workers salary and the Federal Government not being able to prepare common budget.”

He said things had taken worse turn since Jonathan left office.

“Dollar has gone double since Dr Goodluck Jonathan left office, with US Dollar exchanging for N350 as at today, Foreign Reserve is declining on daily basis, Boko Haram insurgents have come back even stronger than they were when Buhari assumed office and Nigerians are now being made to pay more for electricity that is not available for them to use,” he said.

“Most importantly, prices of foodstuffs, newsprint, medicine among others have gone over the roof. Should we still continue to attribute all these to Jonathan or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?

“Even former Central Bank Governor (CBN) and Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is saying that President Buhari’s anti-corruption stance is totally inconsistent with the forex regime he supported and that the Federal Government Forex Policy encourages corruption and rent-seeking.

“Funny enough, some people are already talking about President Buhari’s second term not minding the reality that anybody thinking about Buhari’s second term is only planning to snuff life out of Nigerians.”