Full text: My response to Atiku’s statement on Tinubu’s administration – Onanuga

Onanuga

By JAMIU JAMODU

…Atiku doesn’t like Tinubu’s guts, he forgets to credit his administration with some of the fiscal achievements in the last two years – Onanuga

My attention has just been drawn to former vice-president Atiku Abubakar’s vitriol against the Tinubu administration and the person of President Bola Tinubu.

Every line of the blanket criticism reeks of hate. Except ex-VP Atiku was beclouded when spewing his criticism, why did he not admit some good deeds by this government in the last two years?

While I respect Atiku and every Nigerian’s right to voice their opinions in our vibrant democracy, I need to set the record straight and address the fallacies in Atiku’s commentary.

Unless Atiku still lives in Dubai, he ought to admit that in just two years, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has embarked on the most ambitious economic and institutional reforms ever seen in decades. During the campaign, he never promised that the reforms would be easy and painless. But he was clear they were necessary to rescue the country from the brink of fiscal collapse to reverse years of unsustainable spending and lay a solid foundation for long-term inclusive growth.

The removal of the fuel subsidy and unification of the foreign exchange system were steps successive administrations, including that of Obasanjo-Atiku Abubakar, acknowledged as necessary but failed to implement. Atiku promised the reforms in his manifesto. Indeed, all three major candidates in the election agreed they must be done, except that the responsibility to implement the reforms fell on President Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the 2023 election.