Former vice president and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has slammed the President Bola Tinubu-led government over its management of the economy.
Atiku said that “no amount of lying with statistics” can shield the administration from what he described as its worsening economic record.
Atiku accused the administration of attempting to rewrite Nigeria’s economic realities through what he called “creative accounting” and polished public presentations, maintaining that the daily hardship confronting Nigerians tells a completely different story.
In a statement issued on Sunday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president dismissed recent comments by the Minister of finance, Taiwo Oyedele, who had defended the administration’s economic reforms, including the removal of fuel subsidy, debt management strategy and workers’ welfare initiatives.
According to Atiku, the government’s explanation that savings from the removal of fuel subsidy are being deployed to reduce inherited liabilities is inconsistent with publicly available financial records.
He argued that rather than reducing indebtedness to the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Tinubu administration had significantly expanded it.
“As of May 2023, when President Tinubu assumed office, the Federal Government’s exposure to the Central Bank of Nigeria stood at approximately ₦26.9tn. Today, that exposure has ballooned to over ₦40.38tn.
