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| One Year In Office: Tinubu’s Administration Criticized by CUPP |
Comrade Mark Adebayo, the spokesperson for the Coalition, addressed the media on Tuesday in Abuja, discussing the state of Nigeria under Tinubu after one year, and noted that Nigerians are enduring difficult times.
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has issued a strong critique of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Comrade Mark Adebayo, the spokesperson for the Coalition, addressed the media on Tuesday in Abuja, discussing the state of Nigeria under Tinubu after one year, and noted that Nigerians are enduring difficult times.
Adebayo mentioned that many Nigerians had hoped that Tinubu would slightly outdo his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, in areas such as the economy, security, education, health, and infrastructure.
According to the CUPP’s assessment of the past year under another APC government, it appears that the nation’s condition has not only significantly deteriorated but continues to do so progressively.
Adebayo expressed: “For the first time in Nigeria’s history, we had a president whose initial moments in office brought about an unprecedented level of hardship for the populace. It felt as though a foreign force had taken over.
Before President Tinubu even left the Eagle Square, where his inauguration occurred, Nigerians were already suffering from what could be termed the harshest economic attack, which disrupted lives, led to business failures, removed food from millions of tables, forced numerous children out of school, greatly increased insecurity, and irreparably harmed lives and marriages. This was due to a roughly 600% increase in fuel pump prices and a tripling of the country’s inflation rate, all within the first minute of Tinubu’s presidency. Nigerians have not recovered from this disaster to this day. His initial offering to Nigerians was one of widespread suffering, hunger, poverty, and a government completely indifferent to the hardships of its people.
The abrupt removal of the fuel subsidy was both thoughtless and malicious! Without any protective policy measures, the president deviated from expectations and inflicted what could be described as economic terrorism on Nigerians by announcing the end of the subsidy. With the subsidy’s removal, so too went the joy, hope, and high expectations for a Tinubu administration that many believed would bring a new era of development, prosperity, peace, and progress, as he ardently promised during his campaign. Yet, all his actions from his first day in office to the present have been contrary to those hopes.
The arguments for subsidy removal are both illogical and indefensible. If there were individuals misappropriating the oil subsidy, a logical and capable government would have pursued those offenders and sealed the breaches. Instead, the Tinubu administration opted for a blanket punishment of the vast majority of innocent Nigerians for the wrongdoings of a tiny fraction of economic criminals plundering the nation’s wealth. Rather than confronting the culprits, he turned against the Nigerian people.
There is no valid reason for the manner in which the subsidy was eliminated. The president’s eagerness to enforce the harmful neo-liberal economic policies dictated by the International Monetary Fund and other international financial bodies, which aim to keep Africa in a state of perpetual underdevelopment, was the primary motive behind this action against the populace. This move has devalued our Naira to barely more than worthless paper. It’s disheartening that even the currency of a smaller neighboring nation like the Republic of Bénin is considerably stronger than Nigeria’s."
