Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has questioned the rationale for the Federal Government’s hiring of consultants from Malaysia with N458 million to help Nigeria build her economic capacities.
“The Federal Government’s action is a clear vote of no confidence on President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and economic experts in the country,” Fayose said.
In a statement, Governor Fayose said “out-sourcing consultancy for the conduct of study that would aid the implementation of the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) is tantamount to telling Nigerians that they all lack capacity to govern their own country.
“It is shameful that Nigeria, which produced the likes of African Development Bank (ADB) president, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina; treasurer and vice president of the World Bank, Mrs. Aruma Otteh; independent non-executive director of Standard Chartered Plc, United Kingdom, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and professor of Political Economy, Pat Utomi, among others, is now paying people from Malaysia to revive its economy.”
The governor further queried:” How can you hire foreign consultants that would work for 13 weeks to conduct a study on how to revive the economy of a country like Nigeria and pay them N458 million?”
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Fayose said the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of Buhari lacked clue as to how to solve our country’s economic problems. “Now they have just confirmed that truly, they are clueless.
“By hiring economic experts from Malaysia, President Buhari and his men have confirmed that they have no capacity to govern this country.
“It was the cluelessness of the Buhari’s government that made the exchange rate that was N197 to $1 as at May 29, 2015 rise to as much as N500 to $1 before it came down to about N370 to $1. Today, official rate is N305 to $1.
“It was this same cluelessness that made one bag of rice that was N7,000 at the time Buhari took office to rice to as much as N22,000 and made more than 25 states to be unable to pay workers salary regularly owing to dwindled revenue from the federation account.”
The governor lamented the report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), an agency of the Federal Government, that the number of unemployed Nigerians rose from 7.51 million at the beginning of October 2015 to 11.19 million at the end of September 2016.
“This was caused by Buhari government’s cluelessness. The president and his men do not know what to do. It is therefore left for Nigerians to use their votes to show Buhari and his APC the way out of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in 2019,” Fayose said.
Meanwhile, former Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel, has pledged to rebrand the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to ensure victory for her, if given the mantle of leadership.
He made the promise in Benin City at the weekend during a visit to the Edo State chapter of the party where he informed members of his intention to run for the national chairmanship position.
Daniel scored the Buhari low in economic growth and security. He said the APC has not achieved anything tangible to win the 2019.
“The missing Chibok girls are still not found, herdsmen are killing people daily and ravaging parts of the country. The alarming cases of kidnap among others across the country is a sign of a failed government.”
The Edo State PDP chairman, Dan Orbih appreciated the visit. He said the party was determined to ensure a credible candidate emerge as its national chairman.
A group, the Save Humanity Advocacy Centre (SHAC) has, however, commended President Buhari, over the country’s ranking in the war against terrorism.
The SHAC Executive Secretary, Ibrahim Abubakar, made the commendation at a press conference in Abuja yesterday.
According to him, the recent ranking by the Institute for Economics and Peace, is a reflection of Buhari’s good leadership.
Abubakar said the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) was also an attestation of the success of the service chiefs in the war against terrorism in Nigeria and the Lake Chad basin.
The group stated that the ranking was not a surprise, given that the military’s efforts had reduced the Boko Haram activities by 80 per cent.
It urged Buhari to intensify efforts to ensure that terrorism is totally eradicated in the country.
