Former presidential candidate of the Action Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has faulted President Bola Tinubu over his inability to form his ministerial cabinet months after his inauguration.
Speaking in an interview with Arise News on Monday, Kachikwu said the president should name his ministers and not focus on receiving friends and well-wishers in the State House.
The former presidential aspirant said President Tinubu should have prepared his ministerial list from the day he was inaugurated, saying that his advisers had missed the mark in assisting him in his duties.
He said, “For someone who wants to hit the ground running, he ought to have had his cabinet ready from day one. He has not done this, and a lot of people are disappointed.
“Our president, or any president, can only be as good as his advisers. I don’t know the people who are advising him, but I believe they’ve gotten it wrong. He’s made some good steps in what he’s trying to do in terms of unifying the exchange rate, but again, you can’t take a step and take two steps forward and take ten steps backwards.”
On the unification of the exchange rate, Kachikwu said the government is now using the new exchange rate to tax all imports into the country, which has led to a rise in the inflation rate of the country.
Kachikwu said that he expected that the government would have looked critically at the unification of the exchange rate as it would eventually have a huge impact on the economy.
He said: “Like what I said about the exchange rate, if you see what’s happening at the ports now, the government is now using the new exchange rate to tax all imports into the country.
“What this means is that we have escalated costs for every good that is coming into Nigeria. That triggers inflation. The government benefits from inflation, but the same government says they’re fighting inflation.”
The former presidential aide also said fuel subsidy should have been temporarily removed, then put back in place after measures had been cemented to ensure that subsidy is not abused.
He said: “Nigerians did not deserve to suffer for the failures of a few people or for the failure of the government not to be able to manage the process of subsidy.”
