A senior Consultant and Public Affairs analyst, Abdulsalam Suleiman Izuagbe, on Thursday faulted those blaming President Bola Tinubu for the hardship and food crisis in Nigeria.
Izuagbe said Tinubu inherited a near comatose economy from former President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that the president did not remove fuel subsidy that paved the way for the current economic situation in the country.
He noted that since assuming office, the president has been making efforts to recover the losses Nigeria incurred during the previous administrations.
Speaking on the state of the nation, Izuagbe said: “People are blaming President Tinubu for the state of affairs of the country, it’s not correct because many people forget that when he assumed office, he inherited an almost comatose economy and people should remember that during the presentation of the 2023 budget by Zainab Ahmed, there was provision for fuel subsidy removal up to June 2023.
“The only thing Nigerians are using to crucify Tinubu is that he came to remove the subsidy which is a lie, he wasn’t the one who removed the subsidy; there was no provision for subsidy in the budget.
“It’s disturbing that Nigerians are blaming Tinubu now that multinational corporations are leaving Nigeria. We must all agree that the issue of insecurity is responsible for most of these cases that made the economy collapse and it’s been there long before Tinubu came in. For instance, how can you explain the suicide bombing in Borno State two weeks ago killing about 30 human beings? This means that our security operatives are not using appropriate equipment and command systems to destroy the enemies of Nigeria. People who have no regard for human life can slaughter people at will and those sponsoring them said they should not be referred to as terrorists but bandits; you don’t treat enemies with kid gloves.
“And when you see all these things, they still blame Tinubu for the failure that was handed over to him, a failed system was handed over to him just like Obasanjo said recently that there is no structure.
“He’s taking good steps to rectify the errors he inherited by trying to create ways to recover the losses we have suffered as a nation. Since he assumed office, Tinubu has been performing well, sending palliatives to the state while some of them have not yet told us what they did with it. I know that with the Economic Coordination Council and the calibre of men in it, some bold will come up.”
The senior consultant also highlighted that Nigeria can produce adequate food to end the shortage by 2026.
This, he said can be done by investing over N800 billion into Agricultural programmes across the local governments in Nigeria.
“The only way out of the economic downturn is to go the Agricultural way, we should be able to encourage the president so that he can come out with a plan for Agriculture, so that by 2026; Nigeria will be able to produce stable crops from the present 135 million metric tons this year to 165 metric tones by 2026 if we do the needful.
“We have a programme: Renewed Hope for Agricultural Advancement where N800 billion can be invested in all the local governments in Nigeria. There will be farm centres in all local governments, there will be an agric taskforce that will monitor them and it will yield better results than the N732 billion spent on empowerment projects.
“Food supply and security is the best policy for every government, if the people are well fed they will be ready to work, not steal, and go to school. We don’t think it will be the same music again for Tinubu in 2026 because then there will be an abundant food supply in the country,” he added.