Abuja — A former National Vice Chairman North-west of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Salihu Lukman, has lamented that the government of President Bola Tinubu had impoverished Nigerians.

Lukman, in a statement, stressed that within one year, virtually everything has crashed, due to the 'impatience and arrogance of Tinubu."

He said before settling down to resume work, Tinubu declared an end to petroleum subsidy without any plan, adding that he also proceeded to float the exchange rate of the Naira against other international currency.

The former party chieftain noted that for an import-dependent nation, why should any leader be in a hurry to implement such policies without having any plan to boost local production.

According to him, "In the case of withdrawal of subsidy, does it require any counselling to time such policy with ensuring capacity for local refining?

"With all the talk of fixing the four refineries in the country and the beginning of production activity by the Dangote refinery, why is President Asiwaju Tinubu in a mad rush and unable to align his policy initiatives with these expectations?"

Lukman stressed that Tinubu's government has demonstrated lack of capacity to to ameliorate worsening living conditions of Nigerians.

He said rather than fixing the country, the federal government was desperately mobilising opposition against the nationwide protest scheduled to take place between August 1 and 10, 2024.

The former director general of Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) noted that as someone who was privileged to have organised protests in the country, one could say without any fear of contradiction that Nigerians, across every part of the country, have never been pushed to the wall like they are today.

"If President Asiwaju Tinubu has turned out to be an impatient leader who is in a hurry to implement policies that have impoverished citizens, why should citizens be patient with him?" he said.