A former presidential candidate of the Action Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu says President Bola Tinubu has taken some wrong policy steps since assuming power on May 29, 2023.
Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Monday morning, Kachikwu said an analysis of the President’s actions is like taking two steps forward and taking another ten steps backward.
The former Presidential candidate however put a large blame for what is happening on the doorsteps of President Tinubu’s advisers saying they are advising him wrongly.
Speaking further, Kachikwu said Tinubu should have appointed his Ministers to assist him in governance by now but seems rather distracted with receiving friends, family, and well-wishers.
According to him, President Tinubu is in a “‘na me be this’ phase,” where he is thrilled with his becoming the president after a long time.
Kachikwu added that, “For someone who wants to hit the ground running, he ought to have had his cabinet ready from day one. He has not done this, and a lot of people are disappointed.”
“Our president or any president can only be as good as his advisers. I don’t know the people who are advising him, but I believe they’ve gotten it wrong. He’s made some good steps in what he’s trying to do in terms of unifying the exchange rate, but again, you can’t take a step and take two steps forward and take ten steps backwards.”
Citing an example of the unifying of the exchange rate which is one of the policies already implemented by the current administration, Kachikwu said it has brought about inflation in the country.
“Like what I said about the exchange rate, if you see what’s happening at the ports now, the government is now using the new exchange rate to tax all imports into the country. What this means is that we have escalated costs for every good that is coming into Nigeria. That triggers inflation. The government benefits from inflation but the same government says they’re fighting inflation,” he said.
He urged the government to critically look into the matter as it would eventually have a huge impact on the economy.
On fuel subsidy removal, Kachikwu said Nigerians did not deserve to “suffer for the failures of a few people or for the failure of the government not to be able to manage the process of subsidy.”
In his view, the removal did not follow due process as measures were not put in place aforehand to make the removal seamless.
