Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi west, has asked
President Muhammadu Buhari to shake up his cabinet, recommending the
dismissal of Udoma Udoma, minister of budget and national planning; Kemi
Adeosun, minister of finance.
The fiery lawmaker also
asked Buhari to fire Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN), saying he is scared of being pelted with stones by his
constituents as a result of the alleged failure of the current
administration.
He said the “widely-acclaimed magical body language” of Buhari has lost its efficacy, lamenting the hardship across the land.
“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,” Melaye said in a statement.
“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.
“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
said those to “face the axe immediately” if the economy must be
effectively rebooted to deliver on the change agenda of the current
administration are Kemi Adeosun; minister of finance, Udo Udoma,
minister of budget and national planning; and Godwin Emefiele, governor
of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“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.
“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.
“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.”
He
accused the CBN governor of “policy flip-flops, summersaults and
inconsistencies as clear evidence of gross incompetence in the
management of the nation’s fiscal and monetary policies”.
“The net
effect of this inconceivable ineptitude on the part of Emefiele is 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,” he
said.
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