Flamboyant
senator and “emerging godfather of Kogi State politics”, Otunba Dino
Melaye on Sunday, September 4, 2016 expressed concern over the economic
recession with a call on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack members of
his economic team and constitute a new team.
Among the economic team he suggested
that should be sacked include the ministers of finance, Kemi Adeosun;
budget and national planning, Udoma Udo Udoma and governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
Melaye, chairman, Senate Committee on
the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and founder of Anti-Corruption
Network, tabled the demands in an e-mailed statement to The Trent from Abuja titled, Buhari – The Barking Is Over, It’s Time To Bark.
While expressing worry by the poor state
of the economy which has brought unprecedented hardship and hunger on
the masses of the Nigerian people, he said sacking the economic team
would be the only solution to reboot the ailing economy.
Melaye accused most members of the
president’s cabinet of gross incompetence, inexcusable ineptitude and a
distressing lack of capacity to deliver on the mandate of their
ministries/agencies, adding Buhari must shake up his cabinet.
He said, “At the moment, it must be
crystal clear to all discerning minds that the President’s
widely-acclaimed magical body language has lost its presumed aura and
efficacy. His no-nonsense demeanor is equally neither instilling fear
nor commanding respect and loyalty from amongst his cabinet members. It
is therefore obvious that the time for barking is over, now is the time
to bite and boot out all those who have demonstrated, in the past
several months, a crass lack of capacity to effectively carry out the
functions of their office.
“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”.p
“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.
“It is for someone with the relevant
qualification, professional knowledge and experience in public sector
finance, development economics, strategic thinking, budgetary planning
and management. 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.”
Melaye regretted Emefiele’s “disastrous
handling and release of the so-called Dasuki-gate funds which amounts to
about 15 per cent of the nation’s foreign reserves.”
He also 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, according to Melaye, 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.”
To reverse the trend, Melaye challenged
President Buhari to muster the courage to wield the big stick and give
Emefiele the boot, to be replaced by a fiscal and monetary policy guru.
“We have these qualified Nigerians in
abundance, and the President must beam his searchlight to find them to
help him, the Nigerian economy as well as the suffering Nigerian
masses”, he stated.
He also called on the President to
immediately discountenance the Economic Team currently under the
supervision of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo “as their
decisions will not be; and has never been respected by the economic
managers and the bureaucracy in Nigeria.”
Instead, Melaye urged the President to
constitute an “Emergency Ad hoc Economic Team” made up of all former
Ministers of Finance, Budget and National Planning, CBN Governors as
well as members drawn from the academia with “deep knowledge of
developmental economics to drive the economic revival programme.”
“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. 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”, he said.
“Nigeria is tottering on a dangerous
precipice, sliding perilously to a certain catastrophe if the current
economic malaise is not halted immediately”, he declared, even as he
said his criticism is borne out of an altruistic fervour, and not a
product of sour grapes akin to some traditional critics of “Every
Government in Power (EGIP)”, he added.
Nigerians and Buhari, he said, should be
able to recall with little difficulty that “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).
He said, “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. I am a truly concerned stakeholder presently bothered by
the imminent, clear and present danger of a still-birth of a Change
Agenda that held so much hope and promise for Nigerians a little over a
year ago.
“While there is a lot of hunger, anger,
anguish and despair currently in the land, I have a firm belief that the
situation is not beyond redemption for Mr President, hence my call for
urgent and drastic remedial action now.”
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