Former Director-Common of the Voice of Nigeria and basis member of the All Progressives Congress, Osita Okechukwu, has advocated for strategic change within the dealing with of the financial insurance policies of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, interesting to the Presidential Financial Staff “to patriotically think about the grotesque financial hardship within the land, to cease derailing President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, meant to uplift hundreds of thousands out of poverty.
The previous Nationwide Publicity Secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change appealed in an open letter he signed and addressed to the PET, a replica of which was made accessible to South-East PUNCH on Monday.
He mentioned, “I’m making this humble attraction as a result of I’m not the one basis member of the APC who needs our nice social gathering to succeed; albeit many don’t want our nice social gathering to enter the 2027 common elections limping amid widespread discontent, despondency, and despair.
“One sincerely thinks that President Tinubu means properly and needs to consolidate the neoliberal capitalist system efficiently by making daring choices to bolster financial reconstruction in Nigeria by way of his Renewed Hope Agenda.
“Fortunately for us Nigerians, President Tinubu has harvested the high-quality tenets of classical Non-Alignment-Doctrine; consequent upon his cordial diplomatic relationship with the West and the East.”
He added that despite financial hardship and gross inequality, President Tinubu has mobilised all the required worldwide powers to make use of our demographic youth benefit in an growing older world to consolidate the change our nice social gathering, the APC, pledged in July 2013.
The letter added, “For this reason I’m interesting to the PET to reverse its gear and take heed to Albert Einstein’s admonition that it’s illogical doing the identical factor time and again and anticipating totally different outcomes. Due to this fact let’s help Mr President to succeed and pull out of this antagonistic financial situation in order that Nigerians can breathe.
“For this reason, as a roadside political economist, I’m crying out in ache over the inadvertent derailing of the Renewed Hope Agenda. I’m but to reconcile how this system may very well be efficiently executed when solely 25 per cent of the 2024 capital funds was launched; furthermore after we are regrettably working multi-budgets.
“Paradoxically the derailing is happening regardless of big money owed, elevated tariffs, extreme taxation and the truth that all revenue-generating companies – the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Company, the Nigerian Customs Service, and the Federal Inland Income Service had exceeded their 2024 targets – N13.1 trillion versus N12.3 trillion, N5.352 trillion versus N5.09 trillion and N5.7 trillion versus N4.0 trillion respectively.”
Okechukwu recalled with nostalgia President Tinubu’s July 2023 profound broadcast assertion on why he eliminated the gasoline subsidy, quote inter alia, “To be blunt, Nigeria may by no means turn into the society it was supposed to be so long as such small, highly effective but unelected teams maintain huge affect over our political economic system and the establishments that govern it.
“The whims of the few ought to by no means maintain dominant sway over the hopes and aspirations of the various. If we’re to be a democracy, the folks and never the facility of cash should be sovereign.
“This group had amassed a lot wealth and energy that they turned a severe risk to the equity of our economic system and the integrity of our democratic governance.”
He enthused, “ Is it not the identical prepare of absurd Mr President frowned at that the PET is boarding by not immediately and publicly disclosing how a lot accrued from the gasoline subsidy removing; when the Joint Appropriation, Funds and Finance Committees of the Nationwide Meeting demanded it final week?”
He reminded the PET that even the late navy Head of State, Common Sani Abacha diligently utilised monies which accrued from his gasoline subsidy removing with social and bodily infrastructure by way of the Petroleum Belief Fund, which was useful to Nigerians.
He concluded, “My humble submission is that the PET shouldn’t neglect that Mr President’s assertion above presupposes that he needs to seamlessly win the 2027 presidential election and find yourself a second time period as a progressive statesman.”
