Former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, has expressed his views on the economic prospects under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu. In an interview on Channels Television, Suswam asserted that the current administration lacks the capacity to transform Nigeria’s economic fortunes.
“Well it’s rather unfortunate right from the Buhari Government where the mantra of ‘Change’ was the singsong. Unfortunately, people didn’t ask what kind of change he was bringing into governance. Is it positive change or negative change? “What we experienced under those eight years were what dovetailed into what we’re experiencing today because whatever foundation that was built by the PDP was completely destroyed by that (Buhari) government.
“We now began a journey to the abyss. The state of the nation, economically, is nothing to talk about, it’s unfortunate that the current (Tinubu) leadership does not have what it takes to change the economic fortunes of this country,”
All the economic policies that they’ve engaged in or they have taken clearly indicate that they can’t solve the economic problems of this country. I give you some example, you remove subsidy from day one, you now float your currency, increase interest rate.
“Now the tariff for electricity has been increased. How does an average man survive under those kinds of heavy bad economic policies? First, subsidy itself is a problem, it affects the cost of transportation, cost of production, because you’re dealing with energy, now that has been removed.
“So, the person who is selling foodstuff who now was transporting maybe from inside Abuja at the cost of N5,000 now has to transport that at the cost of N15,000. Where do you think the cost will end? To the consumer. So, inflation in this country is at 31 per cent. It is unheard of!” he said.
According to him, the removal of petrol subsidy, floating of the naira, increase in electricity tariff, among other policies is evident that the government is out to make things worse for the Nigerian masses.
Suswam contends that the current government’s economic policies fall short of addressing Nigeria’s challenges, leaving the nation in a precarious state
