In the wake of recent reports that the Nigerian economy has slid yet into another recession, the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its flagbearer in the 2019 presidential election, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, have criticized the Buhari administration as having “failed” in its responsibility of ensuring the economic viability of Nigeria and its citizenry.
In a statement issued Sunday, the PDP blamed the economic recession faced by Nigerians on what it called the “restrictive, vindictive and anti-trade policies, bizarre foreign exchange controls and monetary policies that impede growth” instituted by the present administration led by President Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Earlier, on Saturday, Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced that the country recorded a contraction of 3.62 percent in the third quarter of 2020. This is the second consecutive quarterly GDP decline since another recession, in 2016. The cumulative GDP for the first nine months of 2020 stood at -2.48 percent, according to the NBS.
The last time Nigeria recorded such cummulative GDP was in 1987, when GDP declined by 10.8 percent.
According to the PDP, in its statement, “While the Buhari Presidency pretends to be running a free market economy, it is in reality, running a corrupt exclusionist market economy tailored to service the interest of a selfish few while frustrating millions of hardworking Nigerians with restrictive policies, lack of access to incentives and support as well as high taxes and levies. “This has crippled domestic production and competitiveness, eroded investors’ confidence and occasioned a dearth in foreign direct investment, leading to the economic contraction we have continued to witness under Buhari’s watch.
Furthermore, said the PDP, “over 60 million hard working Nigerians have been rendered redundant by the harsh economic policies, including cumbersome protocols and high taxes foisted by the APC administration. “The failure by the Buhari administration to heed to demands by Nigerians to rejig our security architecture has also worsened the level of insecurity in many parts of our country leading to the closure of millions of businesses, with over 30 million of our farmers abandoning their farmlands, while commercial activities on our trade corridors have been destroyed. “Besides, our party had cautioned against the increase in fuel price, which has impacted negatively on the disposable incomes of Nigerians. We, however, insist that poor management and not the high cost of crude oil in the international market is responsible for high costs of domestic price of fuel.
“This is because, in its laziness, the Buhari administration failed to put structures in place to boost domestic competitiveness for favourable market forces-induced pricing before the so called deregulation of the oil sector.”
In his reaction through a post on social media, former vice president, Abubakar Atiku, castigated the Buhari government for not heeding advice he had freely given earlier regarding proper management of the country’s economy. Atiku said the recession could have been avoided had the Buhari government heeded his advice to drastically reduce the cost of governance in the country and improve sources of non-oil revenue.
Said Atiku: ““The nation is broke, but not broken. However, if we continue to spend lavishly, even when we do not earn commensurately, we would go from being a broke nation to being a broken nation.
“A practical approach to this is to place a 15% tax on all business and first-class tickets sold to and from Nigeria, on all luxury car imports and sales, on all private jet imports and service charges, on all jewellery imports and sales, on all designer products imported, produced or sold in Nigeria, and on all other luxury goods either manufactured or imported into Nigeria, with the exception of goods made for export,” he said.
According to the former Vice President, “The proceeds of this tax should be exclusively dedicated to a Poverty Eradication Fund, which must be managed in the same manner as the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, or the Ecological Fund. “I further propose that a 1% poverty alleviation tax should be legislated by the national assembly on the profits of every international oil company operating in Nigeria, and international airlines doing business in Nigeria, which should also go towards the proposed Poverty Eradication Fund.
“And above all, Nigeria must stop borrowing for anything other than essential needs. Again, for the avoidance of doubt, borrowing to pay salaries, or to engage in White Elephant projects, is not an essential need. “This is particularly important as we need cash at hand because the world and our economic and development partners are also focused on helping their home economies overcome the effects of COVID-19. We must be our own saviours,’’ Atiku said.