Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi west senatorial district, has warned President Muhammadu Buhari against failure and the shame it could bring, urging him to shake up his cabinet and dismiss three top government officials.
The outspoken lawmaker says he is scared of being stoned by his constituents as a result of the alleged failure of the current adminstration.
“The president must immediately transit from mere rhetoric to drastic but positive action to save the economy and Nigeria from total collapse. The hunger in the land is real, pervasive, widespread and debilitating for the poor masses,” Melaye said in a statement.
“I was a permanent fixture at the All Progressive Congress (APC’s) Presidential campaign rallies and events, functioning mostly as the Master of Ceremonies (MC). I am a proud APC Member, a party bonafide with a great stake in the success or failure of this administration, so no one can accuse me of sour grapes or meddlesomeness.
“As I walk the streets of my constituency these days, I constantly harbor a foreboding that I could be stoned by my angry constituents for the failure of Mr President to fulfill his campaign promises and expectations to Nigerians.
“Nigeria is tottering on a dangerous precipice, sliding perilously to a certain catastrophe if the current economic malaise is not halted immediately.”
He said those to “face the axe immediately” if the economy must be effectively rebooted to deliver on the change agenda of the current administration are Kemi Adeosun; minister of finance, Udo Udoma, minister of budget and national planning; and Godwin Emefiele, governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“The finance minister has not only displayed gross incompetence on the job, she also lacks the basic and rudimentary grasp of economic fundamentals necessary to run a critical sector of the Nigerian economy like the finance ministry. It is time for her to go now and pave way for a qualified and experienced person to steer the Nigerian economy away from the dark woods it has sunk presently under her stewardship,” he said.
“To be sure, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma is a very charismatic man, an accomplished lawyer, and a quintessential gentleman with a fairly untainted reputation. In everyday parlance, he is a good man. But the critical job of budget and national planning minister for a huge country like Nigeria, with her prevailing economic challenges requires much more than being a good man with a great personality.
“As a lawyer, accomplished in this field as he is, Udoma’s appointment to that position is nepotism taken to very ridiculous heights; and a classic case of putting round pegs in square holes-it will, and can never fit. It is akin to saddling a carpenter with a tailor’s responsibility. The outcome under the circumstances, as has become evidently clear, is bound to be catastrophic for the economy. President Buhari must therefore do the needful now by relieving Udoma of this huge burden that is constituting a clog to the revival of the Nigerian economy.”
He accused the CBN governor of “policy flip-flops, summersaults and inconsistencies as clear evidence of gross incompetence in the management of the nation’s fiscal and monetary policies”.
“The net effect of this inconceivable ineptitude on the part of Emefiele is the free fall in the value of the naira and the total loss of faith and confidence by the international community on the Nigerian economy,” he said.
[…] Melaye fires shots at Buhari, asks him to sack 3 top officials […]