At a rally in Calabar, the state capital of Cross River State, on Tuesday, the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu blasted the presidency for poor economic management.
According to Tinubu, the poor handling of the nation’s economy has seen the president plunge the naira to record lows, driving the naira from N200 per dollar in 2015 to N800 per dollar in 2023 in the parallel market.
“Today, they moved the exchange rate from N200 to N800; if they had repaired it, if they had arrested this, we wouldn’t be where we are today; we would be greater.”
“They don’t know the way; they don’t know how to think; they don’t know how to do,” he said.
On Twitter, videos of his Calabar rally criticism have been retweeted more than 1,000 times, with more than 230 quotes retweeted and more than 1,660 likes.
Read also: Tinubu dubs Atiku liar, Obi, betrayer
“He took dollar from N200 to N800, he couldn’t arrest the Naira from falling because “he don’t know how to think, he don’t know how to do…”
– Tinubu slam @MBuhari in Calabar pic.twitter.com/jjzdIa5cry
— Mercy Agera (@MercyAgera) January 31, 2023
This latest criticism comes days after he condemned the Buhari-led Federal Government for masterminding the fuel scarcity situation and the CBN’s redesign of the naira note, which he suspects was part of a grand plan to jeopardise his chances of winning the February 25 election.
At the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta, the former Lagos State Governor said in Yoruba, “Let fuel be expensive; only they know where they keep it. Keep the petrol, keep the naira; we will vote and be elected. You may change the ink on the naira notes. What you expect will not happen. We will win. They thought they could cause trouble; they sabotaged fuel, but with or without fuel, with or without motorcycles and tricycles, we will vote and win. This is a superior revolution. We will take over the government through our PVCs. Even if they say there is no fuel, we will trek to the polling units.”
However, in a swift response to the APC leader’s detractors, he denied that his outburst, which some attributed to the frustration of the current economic hardship on his campaign, was directed at Atiku Abubakar, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate.
In an interview on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily programme on Wednesday, Nasir El-Rufai, the Kaduna State Governor and member of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), said that there were some elements in Nigeria’s presidential villa working against the ambition of the party’s flag bearer.
The governor alleged that some elements in Aso Rock, having lost out in the primaries, were working hard to frustrate Tinubu.
The former FCT minister accused them of hiding behind the president’s “desire to do what he thinks is right.”
” I believe there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way; they had their candidate,” he said.
“Their candidate did not win the primaries. They are trying to get us to lose the election, and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right. I will give two examples: this petroleum subsidy, which is costing the country trillions of naira, was something that we all agreed would be removed. In fact, I had a discussion with the president and showed him why it had to go. Because how can you have a capital budget of N200 billion for federal roads and then spend N2 trillion on petroleum subsidies? This was a conversation I had with the president in 2021, when the subsidy thing started rising. He was convinced. We left. It changed. Everyone in the government agreed, and it changed.
“The second example I will give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the president. People are blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign, but No. You have to go back and look at Buhari’s first outing as president. He did it; the Buhari-Idiagbon regime changed our currency in secret in order to catch those who were stashing illicit funds. It is a very good intention. The president has his rights. But doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense.”
Some of the the candidates running (for president) are a joke.
– Nasir El-Rufai#CTVTweets pic.twitter.com/cKkcTlvCwj
— Channels Television (@channelstv) February 1, 2023
Meanwhile, at the Calabar rally, Tinubu had promised that if he wins the February 25 presidential election, he will convert Cross River State into a hub of tourism.
Surrounded by Governor Benedict Ayade of Cross River State and Senator Kashim Shettima, along with some senior party members, Tinubu said, “We will make the water surroundings and the Atlantic of Cross River State better than Florida. Money will come in, and this state will become a wonder of tourism in Nigeria. We keep our promises!
“We mean what we say. When we took over in Lagos, we said what we’d do in Lagos, and we did it. Today Lagos is exceptionally rich and functional.”
He urged the large crowd of supporters not to vote for the PDP because, according to him, they mismanaged the resources of the state and nation.
“The PDP mismanaged the country’s economy and privatised national assets for themselves and their cronies.
“Don’t mind them with their lies of 16 years, they cannot even provide electricity to roast corn. They kept lying; the electricity that is generated from our hydro, they don’t know how to do it,” he added.
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