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A former presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (PDP), Adewole Adebayo, has slammed President Bola Tinubu for his economic policy choices.
Adewole Adebayo accused President Tinubu of living large while he asked citizens to endure the economic hardship caused by his administration’s policies.
In an interview with Arise TV, on Thursday, Adebayo explained that Nigerians should not be made to choose to have the basic necessities of life because of the government’s economic policies.
He emphasized that the act of blaming former President Muhammadu Buhari‘s administration for the current hardship in the country was unfounded.
“Permit me, with due respect, to disagree with those who say that President Tinubu is not responsible for any problems inherited from Buhari’s administration. I would rather take the word of President Tinubu himself, who said that he will continue where President Buhari stopped.
“So whatever any other person, any other apologist, is saying is not as important as what the president himself said as a matter of presidential policy, that he is going to continue where President Buhari stopped. And he was influential in President Buhari’s government. He was influential in the policy. He now has inherited it. And they are carrying on the same baton. So let us rest that once and for all,” he said.
Speaking on Tinubu’s appeal to Nigerians for patience, he continued, “The issue of belt-tightening in an economy is not a problem at all. Belt tightening is required. But what the APC government has done, especially President Tinubu, is tightening the belt around the neck of the people. If you are tightening the belt around the waist, well, that could be a waist trainer, and it can tell you how to consume less. But you cannot tighten the belt around the neck of the people, in which case they will not be able to breathe.
“The things that are growing up for the poor are things which are not discretionary. In finance, and in public finance especially, there’s something we call discretionary spending. Discretionary spendings are spendings that you decide whether to spend or not.
“So for a family, in the microeconomics of a family, whether to have food is not discretionary. You have to have food. Whether to have energy, basic energy to live in the modern world; electricity, to power your light, to power your cooking, and all of that; there’s nothing discretionary there. Even though one of the ministers was of the view that maybe these things are discretionary. Maybe you should even off electricity when you go to work, but he’s still keeping his job.
“The other thing you need to know is that educating your children is not discretionary. When you catch a malaria fever or some other typhoid, or whatever, a headache, whatever is the tropical disease that people tend to have, it is not discretionary whether you should go to dispensary, or a pharmacy, or a hospital to take care of yourself.
“So these things that are not discretionary, like when you get a job, you need to travel to your job. You need electricity, you need power, you need energy, you need petrol, or diesel to locomote to work. If you are a trader, you need to carry your goods. None of these things is discretionary.
“That is where they are tightening the belts. That’s why it is almost unconstitutional the way they are running the government. Now when it comes to economic choices, the things that the government is spending money on are things which are discretionary.
“So if a person is being told to be discretionary regarding how much food he consumes, how he educates his children, whether he goes to the hospital, or just pray over his headache; if you are asking a person to do that, then you are purchasing aircraft, purchasing other things which might be necessary for you to use. There is more discretion in that one.
The former SDP presidential candidate stated that President Tinubu is not governing Nigerians. He accused him of committing economic injustice against Nigerians.
“There is more discretionary window in whether you purchase another presidential jet or not, than if somebody who has two children is going to buy a loaf of bread for them or not.
“So that is where the economic injustice is there. But my major disagreement with the government is that they are not governing. The government is not governing at all. They are occupying powerful positions, but they are not doing the job of those positions,” Adebayo added.
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