Governor blames Buhari for naira crash

dimeji akinloye

February 17, 2016 9:21 PM

He said Buhari's foreign trips is a sign that he is insensitive to the hardship confronting Nigerians.

Ekiti state governor, Ayodele Fayose, has blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for the continuous fall of the naira, saying the currency was stronger under Goodluck Jonathan's administration.

With the US Dollar exchanging for N350 as the time of filing this report, Fayose said the President lacks the mental capacity to resolve the economic challenges confronting the country.

In a statement released by his special assistant on public communications and new media, Lere Olayinka, he said after nine months in office, the President has not formed an economic team or articulated his policy direction.

READ: Fayose accuses Buhari of lying about his vacation

The statement reads: “It is the height of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians that the president, who just returned from trips to France and United Kingdom, will again be traveling to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar from February 20 to 27, spending seven days out of Nigeria in what they called ‘three-nation tour.

“Travelling from one country to another won’t solve any of our problems because I have not seen where foreigners assist any nation to develop. The president should know that Nigerians are suffering and they do not need their President to junket around the world, to alleviate their sufferings.

“Nigerians should prevail on President Buhari to stay at home and govern the country… It is worrisome that President Buhari does not have any economic team and there is no policy direction yet, despite spending close to nine months in office.

“The implication of the president’s obvious lack of the required mental capacity to tackle the nation’s economic problems and the resultant effects are human right abuses, prices of goods and services skyrocketing, daily retrenchment of workers, folding up of businesses, states finding it difficult to pay workers salary and the Federal Government not being able to prepare common budget.”

On the dollar crash, he said: “Dollar has gone double since Dr Goodluck Jonathan left office, with US Dollar exchanging for N350 as at today, Foreign Reserve is declining on daily basis, Boko Haram insurgents have come back even stronger than they were when Buhari assumed office and Nigerians are now being made to pay more for electricity that is not available for them to use."

“Most importantly, prices of foodstuffs, newsprint, medicine among others have gone over the roof. Should we still continue to attribute all these to Jonathan or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?

“Even former Central Bank Governor (CBN) and Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is saying that President Buhari’s anti-corruption stance is totally inconsistent with the forex regime he supported and that the Federal Government Forex Policy encourages corruption and rent-seeking.

“Funny enough, some people are already talking about President Buhari’s second term not minding the reality that anybody thinking about Buhari’s second term is only planning to snuff life out of Nigerians.”

Fayose is known to criticising Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC), almost on a daily basis.

A former governor of Ekiti state, Niyi Adebayo, had earlier today saidFayose is making a mockeryof the state, noting the APC leadership is doing everything possible to take power from him by the next political dispensation.

dimeji akinloye