Shaibu: Nigerians Getting Poorer, Hungrier, Tinubu Running ‘Animal Farm’ Economy

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Special Assistant on Public Communication to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Phrank Shaibu, has said the latest inflation figure of 26.72% and food inflation of 30.6% underscored the incompetence and cluelessness of the President Bola Tinubu administration.

He said in a statement on Tuesday that Tinubu’s disingenuous removal of petrol subsidy, shoddy exchange rate unification policy, and uninformed introduction of VAT on diesel were among the reasons for the high inflation rate.

Shaibu described the eventual removal of VAT on diesel as belated and evidence of the arbitrary nature of Tinubu’s administration.

He said Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency on food security was nothing but mere rhetoric as food prices had continued to soar coupled with a hike in the cost of transportation and dilapidated federal roads that had made interstate travel unbearable.

“Food prices in several parts of the world are dropping. However, they are increasing in Nigeria because the country is being governed by an economic Lilliputian, whose only bragging right is increasing the revenue of Lagos State through multiple taxation and the institutionalisation of extortion.

“He knows nothing about exchange rate, monetary policy, or even how to run a multi-ethnic and largely agrarian country like Nigeria. This was a man who said last year that the only way to solve unemployment was to employ 50 million youths into the army and feed them with ‘Agbado (corn), cassava and  ewa (beans)’. How can such a man have the answers to Nigeria’s problems?” Shaibu added.

He described Tinubu’s administration as prodigal, adding that the way money was being wasted amid scarcity of resources showed the insincerity of the government.

According to him, “Even at a time when he is calling on everyone to tighten their belts, he inaugurated the largest cabinet in Nigeria’s history and is set to plunge Nigeria deeper into more debt.

“He declared an emergency in food security, ordered the release of grains, and reviewed his earlier palliative plan, but 100 days since the so-called declaration of a state of emergency, Nigerians are hungrier and poorer.

“It is obvious that it was all a ruse to deceive the feeble-minded, just like his announcement on the lifting of the UAE visa ban,” he said, and called on Nigerians to tarry a bit longer while the Supreme Court rectifies the electoral disaster of February 25, 2023.