By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, has said the economic policies of the Tinubu administration are impracticable and therefore not yielding the desired results.
Mohammed noted that Nigeria under Tinubu has sunk deeper into abyss of economic hardship and the reflection is in the increased economic hardship in the country.
The governor said this at the launch of the Nigeria Development Update report by the World Bank in Abuja on Thursday. Mohammed also said that the revenues available to state governments are not enough to address the challenges in various states.
He said: “We should go back to the basics. Nigerians are not enjoying the regime at this time across board, not only the federal government, including the state and local governments. Therefore, the onus rests on you, the finance and the managers of the economy.
“We need to come up with a budget programme with economic policies that will reduce hardship. The money that we are sharing is not enough. The report spoke about employment, wages, and how many per cent of Nigerians are even employed. Most of our people live in the informal sector; we should look at how we can make them self-employed.
“The purchasing power has dwindled, these policies are not working and you know that.”
While introducing the new report, Alex Sienaert, lead economist of the World Bank in Nigeria, said to achieve the desired growth in the nation’s economy, the recently introduced macroeconomic stabilisation reforms should be backed up by creating productive jobs.
Also, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Dr. Ndiame Diop, said while the reforms may be challenging, they are crucial for the nation’s long-term stability.
He added that opposing or reversing these reforms would be detrimental to the development of the country.
Recall that President Tinubu, who succeeded former President Muhammadu Buhari, announced the removal of fuel subsidy during his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023.
Ever since the announcement of subsidy removal things have been going downhill for Nigeria.
Recently, the NNPCL increased the pump price of petrol to N10,30 from N860 ascribing the development to market forces among other factors.
There have been calls for the reversal of the fuel price from various quarters including from the Nigerian Labour Congress (NL). The House of Representatives on Wednesday lent its voice to the call for the reversal of the petrol price.
The red chamber waxed metaphorical by saying Nigerians are “using oxygen to breathe” adding that the increase in fuel price is like removing the cylinder that contains the life-giving gas.
