Posted by President Bola Tinubu’s Independence Day speech has been criticized for being lackluster and depressing by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s communications adviser, Phrank Shaibu.
After undermining the naira and withdrawing the petrol subsidy, which finally pushed inflation to above 25%, Shaibu stated in a statement on Sunday that Tinubu had failed to enhance the minimum wage.
He stated, “Many employees were hoping that a minimum wage announcement would be made today. Tinubu, on the other hand, chose to give the lowest-paid staff a one-time $25 (N25,000) allowance. This guy is obviously heartless and he has no original thoughts to offer.
He said he didn’t want to make inflation worse, therefore he vetoed a minimum wage rise. If he was concerned about inflation, he should have thought things through before ordering the central bank to implement a failed exchange rate unification strategy that has not been accompanied by a proportionate increase in exports, like he claims it has.
Tinubu is making excuses for his failure because he “put the cart before the horse,” as the saying goes. How embarrassing.
Shaibu continued by saying that the organized labor strike proved that Tinubu hadn’t brought the typical Nigerian along with him.
He urged labor unions and Nigerians to have patience. They gave him the benefit of the doubt and delayed for a while, but he ultimately went to court to get an injunction against the strike. The APC now relies almost exclusively on this tactic.
The organized labor and even the majority of Nigerians are threatening to ignore the court ruling now that they are drowning due to Tinubu’s ill-conceived policies. This is the kind of anarchy into which Nigerians will be thrown by Tinubu’s illegal government.
Instead of having open and honest negotiations with the labor unions, Tinubu has been funding crises in NLC affiliate unions like the NURTW, where his minion, MC Oluomo, and others are continuously attacking the NLC. Money can’t buy happiness, and Tinubu has to be reminded of that.
He went on to say that Tinubu’s vow to give relief to the lowest of the poor was nothing more than a trick to take advantage of naive and desperate Nigerians.
He claims that the recent scandal involving the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs proves that the Tinubu administration is not prepared for governing and is instead solely interested in benefiting party members.
Shaibu said, “According to media sources, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Beta Edu, created new appointments into non-existent institutions and defunct World Bank-supported programs.
There will be 13 new department heads and program directors in Edu’s ministry, she said. Most of these appointees were from the APC, a group with very no experience in humanitarian issues.
She put Olubunmi Bello in charge of the Community and Social Development Programme (CSDP), an intervention project that had $415 million from the World Bank but had ended by June of 2021.
Youth Empowerment and Social Support Operations (YESSO) was another defunct World Bank-supported project, and she chose one Richard Romanus as its national programme manager. People are obviously being appointed to positions that do not exist in order to spread the national wealth around. Distribution of any kind of palliative is not in the works. The Bola Tinubu administration is notorious for shams like this one.
Shaibu warned Tinubu that he should realize that ending the gasoline subsidy was not a success. “Rather, it is what is done with the money that is saved from the removal of subsidy that would determine if the regime is successful or not,” he said.
He also took issue with Tinubu’s self-congratulatory tone over the subsidy cut and his insistence that it should have been implemented far sooner.
An assistant to Atiku pointed out that in 2012, when the Goodluck Jonathan administration decided to end subsidies, Tinubu was one of the most vocal opponents.
Shaibu remarked, “Tinubu should hide his face in shame for criticizing former Presidents for keeping subsidies. An example of a man who blamed Jonathan for the price hike at the pump when the subsidy was eliminated in January 2012 is presented here.
Tinubu advised Jonathan to target oil smugglers instead of the Nigerian people. Let’s hope Tinubu has the guts to name and shame the “subsidy thieves” he brings up in every speech. Let Tinubu own up to his role in inciting riots in Lagos over a subsidy in 2012 and publicly apologize.
Tinubu’s remark in his address that he had been fair to all parts of Nigeria was also criticized by Atiku’s adviser.
He claimed that Tinubu’s appointments proved that the governor was exclusively interested in giving high positions to his relatives.
The assertion that Tinubu was the first African leader to ring the NASDAQ bell is false, and so is his claim that he has been fair to all segments of Nigeria. The people in the southeast didn’t vote for him, thus he only appointed five of their statutory ministers, while appointing ten from his own region.
He has also placed control of the customs service, the federal income tax service, and the central bank in the hands of his relatives. For the time being, “only the NNPC is left outside of the southwest,” he stated.