Deeply
worried by the poor state of the economy which has brought unprecedented
hardship and hunger on the masses of the Nigerian people, a federal lawmaker,
Senator Dino Melaye (APC Kogi West) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to
take urgent and drastic measures, including the immediate sack of three
prominent members of his Economic Team as the solution-precedent to reboot the
ailing economy.
In a
Statement in Abuja Sunday, Melaye said the President must shake up his Cabinet,
and accused most of the members of gross incompetence, inexcusable ineptitude
and a distressing lack of capacity to deliver on the mandate of their
ministries/Agencies.
Those to
face the axe immediately if the economy must be effectively rebooted to deliver
on the Change Agenda of the present administration, in the estimation of
Melaye include the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, Budget and National
Planning Minister, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma and the governor of the
Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele.
” At the
moment, it must be crystal clear to all discerning minds that the President’s
widely-acclaimed magical body language has lost its presumed aura and
efficacy.
His
no-nonsense demeanor is equally neither instilling fear nor commanding respect
and loyalty from amongst his cabinet members.
It is
therefore obvious that the time for barking is over, now is the time to bite
and boot out all those who have demonstrated, in the past several months, a
crass lack of capacity to effectively carry out the functions of their office”,
Melaye declared, stressing:
” The Finance Minister has not only displayed gross incompetence on the Job, she also lacks the basic and rudimentary grasp of economic fundamentals necessary to run a critical sector of the Nigerian economy like the Finance Ministry.
It is time
for her to go now and pave way for a qualified and experienced person to steer
the Nigerian economy away from the dark woods it has sunk presently under her
stewardship”.
On Udoma Udo
Udoma, he stated : “To be sure, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma is a very charismatic
man, an accomplished lawyer, and a quintessential gentleman with a fairly
untainted reputation. In everyday parlance, he is a good man.
But the
critical job of Budget and National Planning Minister for a huge country like
Nigeria, with her prevailing economic challenges requires much more than being
a good man with a great personality.
“It is for
someone with the relevant qualification, professional knowledge and experience
in public sector finance, development economics, strategic thinking, budgetary
planning and management.
As a lawyer,
accomplished in this field as he is, Udoma’s appointment to that position is
nepotism taken to very ridiculous heights; and a classic case of putting round
pegs in square holes-it will, and can never fit. It is akin to saddling a
carpenter with a tailor’s responsibility.
The outcome
under the circumstances, as has become evidently clear, is bound to be
catastrophic for the economy. President Buhari must therefore do the needful
now by relieving Udoma of this huge burden that is constituting a clog to the
revival of the Nigerian economy”, the lawmaker declared.
On the CBN
governor, Senator Melaye pointed to his disastrous handling and release of the
so-called Dasuki-gate funds which amounts to about 15 per cent of the nation’s
foreign reserves, policy flip-flops, summersaults and inconsistencies as clear
evidence of gross incompetence in the management of the nation’s fiscal and
monetary policies.
The net
effect of this inconceivable ineptitude on the part of Emefiele, according to
Melaye is the free fall in the value of the naira and the total loss of faith
and confidence by the international community on the Nigerian economy.
To reverse
this trend, Melaye says President Buhari must muster the courage to wield the
big stick and give Emefiele the boot, to be replaced by a fiscal and monetary
policy guru.
“We have
these qualified Nigerians in abundance, and the President must beam his
searchlight to find them to help him, the Nigerian economy as well as the
suffering Nigerian masses”.
He further
called on the President to immediately discountenance the Economic Team
currently under the supervision of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osibanjo
“as their decisions will not be; and has never been respected by the economic
managers and the bureaucracy in Nigeria”.
In its
stead, Melaye urged the President to constitute an “Emergency Ad hoc Economic
Team” made up of all former Ministers of Finance, Budget and National Planning,
CBN Governors as well as members drawn from the academia with “deep knowledge
of developmental economics to drive the economic revival programme”!
“The President
must immediately transit from mere rhetoric to drastic but positive action to
save the economy and Nigeria from total collapse. The hunger in the land is
real, pervasive, widespread and debilitating for the poor masses. As I walk the
streets of my constituency these days, I constantly harbor a foreboding that I
could be stoned by my angry constituents for the failure of Mr President to
fulfil his campaign promises and expectations to Nigerians”, Melaye said,
warning:
“Nigeria is tottering on a dangerous precipice, sliding perilously to a certain catastrophe if the current economic malaise is not halted immediately”, he declared, even as he said his criticism is borne out of an altruistic fervour, and not a product of sour grapes akin to some traditional critics of “Every Government in Power (EGIP)”.
Nigerians
and Mr President, he said should be able to recall with little difficulty that
“I was a permanent fixture at the All Progressive Congress (APC’s) Presidential
campaign rallies and events, functioning mostly as the Master of Ceremonies
(MC).
I am a proud
APC Member, a party bonafide with a great stake in the success or failure of
this administration, so no one can accuse me of sour grapes or meddlesomeness.
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