Says Tinubu’s economic team will ruin Nigeria
Convener of Concerned Nigerians, Deji Adeyanju, has urged the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun, to stop laying too much emphasis on direct cash transfer to vulnerable Nigerians, but to rescue the plummeting economy.
During a chat with newsmen, yesterday, in Abuja, he also said President Bola Tinubu’s economic team members, as presently constituted, will ruin the country’s economy, if left to continue; hence, he called for their sack.
Edun had, during the ministry’s retreat in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, disclosed the government’s plan to resume direct cash transfers to the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians.
The minister said: “The presidential panel on the Social Investment Programme (SIP) has prepared to meet the President with an internal recommendation to restart the direct payments to the poorest and the most vulnerable. Everything is being done to ease the pain.
“We know there are about three million beneficiaries now, but given the way the rates have gone, there are probably another 12 million people, households that can benefit from that payment.”
Adeyanju noted that the minister was appointed to bring the country’s economy out of the woods and not to focus on cash transfer.
According to him, if the minister can get it right with the economy, there will be no need for direct cash transfer to poor and vulnerable Nigerians, as a well managed economy will provide opportunity for the citizens to earn and cater for themselves.
The activist, who said that the present economic team would ruin the country, urged President Bola Tinubu to rejig his economic team for efficiency.
Insisting that an economic team that focuses on borrowing instead of expanding the frontiers of production could not get the job done, he asserted that the country is broke.
He stated: “Left for me, I would say the President should rejig his economic team. The present economic team is going to ruin Nigeria; they cannot get the job done, because any economic team that is more focused on borrowing, instead of expanding the frontiers of production and limiting debts, cannot be trusted with the job because the problem is that Nigeria is broke.”
Asked if going to the streets will change the situation, he noted: “That is the only language that politicians and the elite understand. Nigerians must wake up and take back their country. It is not just enough to come and complain, cry and shout about skyrocketing prices of food items, Nigerians must hit the streets. When we hit the streets, the people in government will instantly get the message.”
