Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose has again questioned the rationale behind the frequent trips embarked upon by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement through his media aide, Lere Olayinka, Fayose urged Nigerians to prevail on their president to stay at home to tackle the myriad problems bedevilling the nation.
He lamented the inability of the Buhari administration to appoint an economic team and accused it of lacking policy direction nine months after coming into office.
“It is worrisome that President Buhari does not have any economic team and there is no policy direction yet, despite spending close to nine months in office,” he said.
The governor flayed the president’s continued insistence on “frivolous” foreign trips when the ones he had made in the past have not yielded any tangible fruit.
He stated that it was the height of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians that the president, who just returned from trips to France and United Kingdom, would again be travelling to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar from February 20 to 27, spending seven days out of the country in what the presidency called “three-nation tour.”
Fayose asserted that Nigerians were, under the Buhari adminsitration, being subjected to human right abuses, escalation of prices of goods and services, daily retrenchment of workers, folding up of businesses, states finding it difficult to pay workers’ salary and the Federal Government not being able to prepare “common” budget.
He described the president as “a square peg in a round hole”, and wondered for how long the present adminstration would continue to blame the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan for its woes,
The statement also stressed: “Dollar has gone double since Dr Goodluck Jonathan left office, with United States Dollar exchanging for N350 as of today. Foreign reserve is declining on a daily basis, Boko Haram insurgents have come back, even stronger than they were when Buhari assumed office and Nigerians are now being made to pay more for electricity that is not available for them to use.
“Most importantly, prices of foodstuffs, newsprint, medicine, among others have gone over the roof. Should we still continue to attribute all these to Jonathan or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?
“Even former Central Bank Governor (CBN) Governor and Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, is saying President Buhari’s anti-corruption stance is totally inconsistent with the forex regime he supported and that the Federal Government forex policy encourages corruption and rent-seeking.”
Fayose advised the president to avoid a wild goose chase and stay at home to address Nigeria’s problems as foreigners would never abandon their own challenges to help us overcome ours.