The 2023 presidential candidate of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has said that he knew that some of President Bola Tinubu’s policies that have now been blamed for the economic hardship in the country would not work.
He said policies like the removal of fuel subsidy look good on paper but are not suitable for the Nigerian situation.
“These policies are not working, unfortunately, Nigerians have voted for these policies,” Adebayo said in an interview with Daily Post.
He added, “We voted for these policies either because we didn’t pay attention or we didn’t understand the implications of these policies.
“When you decide to say you vote for a government that said it would remove subsidy from day one, which was what president Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi said, and we didn’t listen to them, but people thought they have experience, and maybe, they are more realistic than us. So, they voted that way.
“So, any of them that formed the government and adopted any of these policies, will have at the minimum of what we are experiencing now, or even worse.
“These policies are not good, not because of the parties announcing them, but because structurally they are not suitable for us.
“Of course, they come with some benefits, and you can see the benefits. More income to the government, for example, because they are not subsidising any more.
“More income from the foreign exchange differential because they are not defending the Naira in the old way anymore.
“You also have the benefits of goods becoming cheaper, that’s why people are saying they are exporting goods from Nigeria to Niger and neighbouring countries because with lower currency, our goods and any other thing we produce become cheaper, those are the advertised benefits, but we are not structurally prepared for them.”
Adebayo said that Tinubu has surrounded himself with the right economic team “but what he wants to do isn’t correct”.
On the way forward, he urged the Tinubu administration to engage the people more and be “less arrogant in the assessment of how righteous their policies”.