Palliatives: Peter Obi accuses FG of making ill-thought out announcements 

Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, in the February 25 controversial general elections,  has criticised the Federal Government, saying it was only making announcements without thinking.

He reasoned that the All Progressives Congress, APC, has, therefore, produced  little results.

Speaking on Arise News TV, Obi faulted the President Bola Tinubu-led goverment’s handling of issues, such as the palliatives, increase in workers’ salaries, stabilisation of the naira, and fuel subsidy differently, adding that he would have gone about it differently.

“What we are suffering now is what I can call announcement of effect.
There should have been well thought out policy by a properly constituted economic team before making announcements,” the former Anambra governor said.

“You don’t just announce these things in a market square before deciding on what to do. Governance is different from that.

“Things have to be done differently and with proper thought-out measures.There should be coordination between the federal, states and local governments to be able to pull through this difficult time.

“This government has been doing announcements with limited thinking, which in turn, produces limited outcomes.

“If we look at what is happening now and comments of respected Nigerians, it underscores the erosion of value that calls for the urgency of building a new Nigeria where things will be properly done based on people saying the truth, doing things rightly within the laws and behaviours that should be the pride of a modern society.”

Obi reiterated that fuel subsidy, is an organised crime, citing the Labour Party manifesto, which proferref a way out.

He said: “What they say we are consuming is far above what we are actually consuming. There is criminality and corruption side of it. Since the subsidy was removed, our consumption had reduced by 50%.

“For me, the approach would have been to remove the corruption and criminal side of it and the excess demand to arrive at the factual figures.

“We would have, after consultations with the various stakeholders, found a way of investing the recovered excess revenue into the critical areas of education, health and removing people out of poverty.

“People should be able to see the transparency of transferring the gains from one place to the other. And when it is done in an organized manner, palliatives that are well structured and not done haphazardly, would have seen Nigerians going along with government.”

He also disagreed with floating the naira without adequate supply, and likened it to  building a house without a gate in a society where criminality thrives.

“There has to be a defence mechanism. Nobody floats what he cannot supply. The new CBN team should look at the overall monetary policy, which should focus on exchange rate and controlling inflation and removing criminality in the system,” Obi posited.

“The naira has been under pressure and a bit of overvalued. What we should have done was to devalue the currency. Devaluation by about 600 would have been it, so that we can manage the supply and deal with issues that control the exchange rate.

“What controls the exchange is the reserve and what controls the reserve is the export. We should focus on things that would enable the country earn more foreign exchange, rather than allow it to be controlled by market forces, which we cannot control.”