From Idu Jude Abuja
Against the backdrop of the cabinet reshuffling carried out by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to weed out Ministers caught in the web of poor performance, the main opposition political party in Nigeria, the Labour Party,(LP) has advised President Tinubu to honorably to the way of honor and relieve himself of the duty of the minister of Petroleum.
The National Publicity Secretary of the (LP) Mr Obiora Ifoh, stated this in an exclusive telephone chat with Saturday Sun.
Obiora Ifoh, while reminding the President of his promises of sacking Ministers with poor performance, challenged that of the office of the Minister of Petroleum, having performed poorly, with failed promises of revamping the refineries, reducing pump prices, and a failed subsidy regime.
Further speaking, Obiora Ifoh said, “And when we are talking about the ministry of petroleum, we are talking of the one that is expected to generate over 70 percent of our income annually.
“The Minister of Petroleum has become the worst minister as far as this dispensation is concerned. The Ministry of Petroleum, under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has performed poorly and needs to be changed. But the issue is that the President cannot sack himself in our clime. We thought he should live up to his words.
” He should be able to tell us how many barrels of oil Nigeria produces and exports daily and also how many we consume locally. He should be able also to tell us how many refineries have been fixed under his administration. The Minister of Petroleum should be able to tell us the reason for the arbitrary increase in pump price and lack of the product at the same time. Nigerians are still waiting to be educated on the integrity of subsidy policy summersaults”
On the decisions made to sack former ministers of Women’s Affairs and Education, he said, “You and I knew that nothing whatsoever was going to be done to turn around the economy as far as cabinet reshuffling is concerned. And when we talk about the economy, we should be talking about the key economic sectors, like the National Budget and planning, finance, Agriculture, and Health. And from what he has done, I don’t foresee any magic that would turn around this battered economy from what just happened. What we just witnessed is a mickey-mouse game, moving people from one position to the other, and that is not what Nigerians are expecting from the government after almost one year of continuous rumors of cabinet reshuffle”.
Furthermore, he demanded that the Tinubu administration should be able to showcase its economic blueprint for economists all over the world to see and interpret or assess “Now, we are asking the APC-led Government to tell us how the economy will be revamped. What is the blueprint they have to revamp the economy? And when you take a look at those new ministerial nominees waiting to be appointed as Ministers, I don’t know any of them who have played at the highest policy development across the world.
“I can tell you none of them, not even in academia. So we are still going to see the same kind of Mickey Mouse game. Something worse than what we saw in the last year.
“The truth of the matter is that this present administration has no economic plans. It has become obvious that after floating the naira they lost focus. And as I talk to you, the naira in the exchange rate is 1 700 naira per dollar. And this is the naira they met at 250 naira per dollar, so what are we talking about?
The LP National Publicity Secretary rues the harsh economy and what Nigerians go through daily, saying, “Okay, take a look at the common things Nigerians need, like the none availability of staple foods, which has made things worse with a bag of rice sold higher than a worker’s minimum wage. As it stands, there is no money, and even when one has the money, it has become a situation in which plenty of money is chasing a small number of food items in the market, which is hyper inflammation. So it is time Nigerians address these tangential issues because the Tinubu administration is just like a rolling stone waiting for his tenure to expire”.
On the Education sector, he observed that the quality of learning has gone down owing to poor appointment of round pegs in square holes. “can you imagine that for close to one year, all Nigerians heard from the former minister, was that children within the age of 16 won’t be admitted into the University in the 21st century?
“And that was the only policy statement he made for the wrong reasons. Again, take a look at the poor salaries of lecturers across Nigerian Universities. When I spoke to one of the Lecturers recently, he told me that the increment for them was 50,000.00 across the board irrespective of your grade levels or steps. That is APC’s understanding of the minimum wage.
” And when you talk of the Ministry of Women Affairs or the Ministry of Sports, these are not at the core economy, and as I told you, it was just a change of name to divert the attention of Nigerians focusing on the performance of the economy. The man from sports has this inclination in sports development, and of what use are you moving him to trade and investment? And if we take a look at the whole scenario, Tinubu brought an ethnic dimension to it, removing a constitutional Minister from the South East to bring in Bianca Ojukwu, who will now be reduced to just a minister of State for foreign affairs. This has got to show that the South East only has two constitutional ministers in this administration. And to buttress what I am saying, the Minister of State for Labor Inkeiruka Onyejiocha, who has been a minister of State since the main minister of Labour joined the Senate, had remained there even when we thought that she would be alleviated to that statute. So you can see that Tinubu also brought ethnicity into his administration. So what I am saying is that the South East is hugely marginalized. That is where I am going. And there are other dimensions to it, but we should not delve into that, one thing is sure, and that is the fact that this administration never pretended not to love the South East”.
The Labor Party National spokesperson, therefore, urged the President to look for competent hands that would help rejig the economy to enable the country to remain safe till the next two years when they now file out again to decide what is good for them.
