The Presidency and former Vice President Abubakar Atiku were at daggers drawn, yesterday, over the manner the economy was being managed.
While Atiku listed ways he would have properly managed the economy, the Presidency said the former vice president would have plunged Nigeria into a worse economic situation had he won the 2023 presidential election.
Atiku, who was presiential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 election, said: "We would have planned better and more robustly: My journey of reforms would have benefited from more adequate preparations; more sufficient diagnostic assessment of the country's conditions; more consultations with key stakeholders; and better ideas for the final destination.
"We would have been guided by my robust reform agenda as encapsulated in 'My Covenant With Nigerians,' my policy document that sought to, among others, protect our fragile economy against much deeper crisis by preventing business collapse; our document had spelt out policies that were consistent and coherent.
"We would have sequenced my reforms to achieve fiscal and monetary congruence. Unleashing reforms to determine an appropriate exchange rate, cost-reflective electricity tariff, and PMS price at one and the same time is certainly an overkill.
"Add CBN's bullish money tightening spree. As importer of PMS and other petroleum products, removing subsidy on these products without a stable exchange rate would be counter-productive.
"We would have been more strategic in our response to reform fallout. We would not over-estimate the efficacy of the reform measures or underestimate the potential costs of reforms. I would recognise that reforms could sometimes fail.
"I would not underestimate the numerous delivery challenges, including the weaknesses of our institutions, and would work assiduously to correct the same. I would, as a responsible leader, pause, reflect, and where necessary, review implementation.
"I would have led by example. Any fiscal reform to improve liquidity and the management of our fiscal resources must first eliminate revenue leakages arising from governance, including the cost of running the government and the government procurement process. I (and members of my team) would not have lived in luxury while the citizens wallow in misery.
"We would have communicated more effectively with the people, with civility, tact, and diplomacy.
"Transparent communication with the public is essential to build public trust, which in turn is important to ensure that the public understands what the government is doing.
"We would have consulted more with all stakeholders to learn, negotiate, adapt, and modify, among other policy goals."
You would have plunged Nigeria into worse economic situation -- Presidency
Tackling Atiku last night, the Presidency said the former vice president would have plunged Nigeria into worse economic situation if he had won the 2023 Presidential election, accusing him of supervising what it described as a questionable privatisation programme.
The presidency in a statement titled, "Our initial response to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar," which was signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in Abuja said: "We have just read a statement credited to former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, in which he tried to discredit President Bola Tinubu's economic reform programmes while pushing his untested agenda as a better alternative.
"First, Alhaji Atiku's ideas, which lacked details, were rejected by Nigerians in the 2023 poll.
"If he had won the election, we believe he would have plunged Nigeria into a worse situation or run a regime of cronyism.
"Abubakar lost the election partly because he vowed to sell the NNPC and other assets to his friends. Nigerians have not forgotten this, nor would they be comforted by Atiku's antecedents when he ran the economy in the first term of President Olusegun Obasanjo's government between 1999 and 2003.
"As Vice President, Atiku supervised a questionable privatisation programme. He and his boss demonstrated a lack of faith in our educational system, and both went to establish their universities while they allowed ours to flounder.
"Talk is cheap. It is easy to pontificate and deride a rival's programmes even when there are irrefutable indices that the economic reforms yield positives despite the temporary difficulties.
"Despite the futile attempt to hoodwink Nigerians again in his statement, it is gratifying that the former Vice President could not repudiate the economic reforms pursued by the Tinubu administration because they are the right things to do.
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"His advocacy for a gradualist approach only showed that he was not in tune with the enormity of problems inherited by President Tinubu.
"It is so easy to paint a flowery to-do list. It is expected of an election loser."
The statement further claimed that "President Tinubu met a country facing several grave challenges. Fuel subsidies were siphoning away enormous resources we could ill afford, and there was criminal arbitrage in the forex market.
"No leader worth his name will allow these two economic disorders to persist without moving to end them surgically.
"While advocating for gradual reforms may sound appealing, Tinubu took measures that should have been taken decades ago by Alhaji Abubakar and his boss when they had the opportunity."
"Alhaji Abubakar calls for empathy and a human face to reforms. We have no problem with this as it resonates well with our administration's focus. President Tinubu has consistently emphasised the need for compassion and protection of the most vulnerable.
"The administration has prioritised social safety nets and targeted support for those affected by recent economic transitions."
