The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), on Sunday, said that the apparent absence of an economic team in the third month of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was leading the country into economic quagmire and doldrums.
In a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja, by its national publicity secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the party pointed out that the confusion over the operations and regulations of the foreign exchange transactions in Nigeria was a clear agenda by President Buhari to illegally impose a communist economic regime on Nigerians.
According to the statement, “in the past, we had given examples of the devastating effect of lack of an economic team and a clear-cut fiscal policy by this administration, as evidenced in the lull and painful decline in the stock market, spiral rate of inflation, disastrous outing of the government team in bilateral talks during the recent visit to the United States of America and the shambles state of our economy at present.
“This confusion has been extended to operations and regulations of the foreign exchange transactions in Nigeria, wherein the government is making it impossible for honest Nigerians to engage in free trade and regulate their personal activities as guaranteed by the constitution, and this is clearly an agenda to illegally impose a communist economic regime on Nigerians.”
The party added that “the most disturbing aspect of this communist economic agenda is the illegal and unlawful attempt to repeal the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Monitoring And Miscellaneous Provisions Act, otherwise known as Decree No 17 of 1995 and replace it with unilateral imposition of new regulations.
“This Act remains the subsisting law regulating the operations of domiciliary accounts in Nigeria and by its provisions, therefore, Nigerians are empowered to freely open and operate domiciliary accounts.”