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Stop barking, act, Dino Melaye tells Buhari

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An All Progressives Congress ( APC ) senator, Dino Melaye, has called President Muhammadu Buhari to stop barking and start acting.

Melaye, who made the call in reaction to the poor state of Nigeria’seconomy, which has brought unrecorded  hardship and hunger in the country, said the situation has got to a point when President Buhari must take drastic measures to remedy the situation.

He asked for the immediate sack of some prominent members of the President’s Economic Team as the solution-precedent to reboot the ailing economy as well as shake up his cabinet. He accused some of the cabinet members of gross incompetence, inexcusable ineptitude and lacking the capacity to deliver in their respective ministries and agencies.

He specifically asked for the sack of Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, Budget and National Planning Minister, Senator Udoma  Udo Udoma and the governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele.

“At the moment, it must be crystal clear to all discerning minds that the President’s widely-acclaimed magical body language has lost its presumed  aura and efficacy. His  no-nonsense demeanor is equally neither instilling fear nor commanding respect and loyalty from amongst his cabinet members. It is therefore obvious that the time for barking is over, now is the time to bite and boot out all those who have demonstrated, in the past several months, a crass lack of capacity to effectively carry out the functions of their office.

” The Finance Minister has not only displayed gross incompetence on the Job, she also lacks the basic and rudimentary grasp of economic fundamentals necessary to run a critical sector of the Nigerian economy like the Finance Ministry. It is time for her to go now and pave way for a qualified and experienced person to steer the Nigerian economy away from the dark woods it has sunk presently under her stewardship,” he said.

On the case of Udoma, Melaye said, “To be sure, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma is a very charismatic man, an accomplished lawyer, and a quintessential gentleman with a fairly untainted reputation. In everyday parlance, he is a good man. But the critical job of Budget and National Planning Minister for a huge country like Nigeria, with her prevailing economic challenges requires much more than being a good man with a great personality.

“It is for someone with the relevant qualification, professional knowledge and experience in public sector finance, development economics, strategic thinking, budgetary planning and management. As a lawyer, accomplished in this field as he is, Udoma’s appointment to that position is nepotism taken to very ridiculous heights; and a classic case of putting round pegs in square holes-it will, and can never fit. It is akin to saddling a carpenter with a tailor’s responsibility. The outcome under the circumstances, as has become evidently clear, is bound to be catastrophic for the economy. President Buhari must therefore do the needful now by relieving Udoma of this huge burden that is constituting a clog to the revival of the Nigerian economy.”

According to him, the CBN governor, had disastrously handled the so-called Dasuki-gate funds which amounts to about 15 per cent of the nation’s foreign reserves. He said policy flip-flops, summersaults and inconsistencies arising from CBN shows a clear evidence of gross incompetence in the management of the nation’s fiscal and monetary policies.

He stated that Emefiele through inconceivable ineptitude, caused the free fall in the value of the naira and the total loss of faith and confidence by the international community on the Nigerian economy.

“We have qualified Nigerians in abundance, and the President must beam his searchlight to find them to help him, the Nigerian economy as well as the suffering Nigerian masses,” he said.

Also on the Economic Team, Melaye called on the President to immediately disband the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo-led Economic Team “as their decisions will not be; and has never been respected by the economic managers and the bureaucracy in Nigeria”.

He then advised President Buhari to constitute an ‘Emergency Ad hoc Economic Team’ made up of all former Finance Ministers, Budget and National Planning, CBN governors including experts from the academia who have “deep knowledge of developmental economics to drive the economic revival programme”!

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“The President must immediately transit from mere rhetoric to drastic but positive action to save the economy and Nigeria from total collapse. The hunger in the land is real, pervasive, widespread and debilitating for the poor masses. As I walk the streets of my constituency these days, I constantly harbor a foreboding that I could be stoned by my angry constituents for the failure of Mr President to fulfill his campaign promises and expectations to Nigerians.

“Nigeria is tottering on a dangerous precipice, sliding perilously to a certain catastrophe if the current economic malaise is not halted immediately”, he declared, even as he said his criticism is borne out of an altruistic fervour, and not a product of sour grapes akin to some traditional critics of “Every Government in Power (EGIP).

“I was a permanent fixture at the All Progressive Congress (APC’s) Presidential campaign rallies and events, functioning mostly as the Master of Ceremonies (MC). I am a proud APC Member, a party bonafide with a great stake in the success or failure of this administration, so no one can accuse me of sour grapes or meddlesomeness.

“I am a truly concerned stakeholder presently bothered by the imminent, clear and present danger of a still-birth of a Change Agenda that held so much hope and promise for Nigerians a little over a year ago. While there is a lot of hunger, anger, anguish and despair currently in the land, I have a firm belief that the situation is not beyond redemption for Mr President, hence my call for urgent and drastic remedial action now”, Melaye stated.

By Ebere Ndukwu . . .

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