Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is in no position to offer economic advice to the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, judging by his limited knowledge of contemporary economics, according to the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO)
The group said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, that Atiku’s description of the 0.6% slash in the 2020 budget as window dressing betrayed “his shallow understanding of basic economics and his penchant for grandstanding.
“For a man who was Vice President for eight years, presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, and who once claimed he headed the country’s best-ever economic team, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has again proved to be no better than a roadside economist.
“He has not only shown that he is out of touch with present-day economic realities, with his inability to comprehend simple adjustments in an income and spending proposal like a Budget, he also, yet again, plucked figures from the air in an attempt to ridicule the government’s decision to reduce the 2020 expenditure plan by 0.6 % from ₦10.594trn to ₦10.523trn.
“We wonder how Atiku wants Nigerians to take him and his perennial presidential ambition seriously when he and his team cannot do simple fact-checking of their claims. In this particular case, he submitted that Saudi Arabia slashed its 2020 budget by 30percent, which we insist is a huge lie.
“The Saudis only cut their budget by $13.3 billion, corresponding to less than 5% of overall expenditure and we need to add here that Nigeria’s marginal cut in expenditure is in alignment with the contemporary economic initiative of ensuring expansionary spending and providing stimulus in the economy to enhance consumption.
“It is also surprising that the former Vice President could even dare play to the gallery by suggesting that the government should unilaterally slash the budget of the National Assembly as if he does not understand the implications of the independence of the legislative arm of government.
“We also wonder what manner of an economic expert would expect anyone to buy aircraft at this time of Covid-19, especially when we know that the Presidential fleet has long been depleted with the President twice handing over some aircraft to the Air Force to boost its operational efficiency.
“And Atiku Abubakar does not appear to know that the total emoluments of political appointees in the executive is not up to one per cent of total budgetary expenditure when he spoke about slashing the salaries of political appointees,” the statement added.
BMO argued that the marginal slash in the budget was done against the backdrop of the chaos that Covid-19 was bringing to the global economy.
“The steps taken by the Buhari administration is necessary to drive multiple dimensioned economic transactions that would ensure buoyancy in the economic space to save businesses and jobs in the face of a threat of recession, this is against the archaic argument for austerity measures canvassed by the former Vice President.
“We view it as a cryptic call for retrenchment of workers by someone who, without sympathy, sacked hundreds of employees in two of his companies, even before the pandemic began to take its toll on economic activities.
” The PDP chieftain has shown that he is a heartless person who has no qualms about pushing people into unemployment, as well make suspicious economic prescriptions that could worsen the unemployment situation at a time like this.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the reviewed budget of N10.2trn is a specific response to the challenges thrown up by the coronavirus, that were not envisaged in September 2019 when the 2020 budget was being considered. So, the review talks to a visionary government able to anticipate and address new challenges”.
The group urged Nigerians not to be deceived by the former VP’s grandstanding which it described as a ploy to keep him in the public space in readiness for yet another attempt at appropriating the national treasury for himself and his cronies.