New Telegraph

Adebayo Urges Tinubu To Cut Wastage, Corruption In Governance

The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the February 25 general election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has advised President Bola Tinubu to cut the heavy burden of wastage and corruption in Nigeria.

Adebayo in a statement issued on Saturday said it is not enough for the President to remove fuel subsidy but he should also tackle wastage and corruption in the state.

He said, “The inaugural speech of the President reflected the APC campaign plans. Predictably, they said they were going to remove fuel subsidy, we thought it was a very bad idea and we debated it all over the country but the three major parties who supported subsidy removal, APC PDP and Labour Parties were handsomely rewarded by the voters.

“For people like us in the SDP who said no that the government must cut the corruption because you need a social safety net for the people and the subsidy is a way to control other cost drivers to avoid cost-push inflation.

“So try to cut the heavy burden of wastage of corruption, not the subsidy. So when the president was now demonstrating the APC plans at the inauguration, the only thing I could do was to go into his stylistics.

“Apparently, the president was not aware that his voice is the weather veil of Nigeria and that whatever he says would move all markets.

“It appears he had a targeted audience that he wanted to communicate to, maybe investors, and bilateral and multilateral agencies but he forgot the most important people, the people of Nigeria that you don’t throw them into panic by saying subsidy is gone.

“But it turned out that they are sticking to their guns. The only duty I owe the Nigerian people is to remind us that you have options and you decided to go with the three parties who said they were going to cut subsidies and 90% of the vote cast was shared by the three parties who were united from day one.

“It’s now left for the Nigerian people to understand that elections have consequences and next time if you are not happy, the SDP is still here because you have 4 years to think about whether you made a good decision or not.

“Under the existing law, the subsidy was already gone before the president came in. Maybe he made an announcement of the policy of the previous government or he was only trying to emphasise it.”

Adebayo asked the President to roll out the palliatives the immediate past administration promised Nigerians. He said the 2023 budget has provisions for palliatives that Nigerians need at this critical stage.

He also warned Nigerians not to be surprised when the federal government will devalue the Naira. “It is remarkable that in that speech he also spoke that he was going to create the convergence of the exchange rate.

“He deliver better than he delivered the subsidy issue. The language he used is quite therapeutic that people don’t realise that what he said was that he was going to devalue the naira because if you say you are going to harmonise the exchange rate and there is no way you harmonise the exchange rate that it is going to trend south.

“No, it is going to trend north. The official rate is the only one that can travel. The autonomous which is the black market is already in the market so the two of them are going to remain there since the official rate is the one in bondage.”

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