- By Femi Alabi
The Presidency has said that a policy in which $1.5bn is spent monthly to shore up the naira will only aid financial malpractices and further hurts Nigeria economy.
It also added that controlled floatation of the naira to prevent further devaluation would only return the country’s economy to the dark days of former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, made this assertion in a statement he signed Sunday titled, ‘Once again, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar got it wrong.’
Onanuga was reacting to a former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party at the 2023 polls, Atiku Abubakar, who held hat Tinubu’s economic policies, especially the unification of the exchange rate, were implemented hastily without adequate planning and proper consultations with stakeholders.
Atiku criticised the government, saying, “The wrong policies of the Tinubu administration continue to cause untold pain and distress on the economy and the rest of us cannot keep quiet when the government has demonstrated sufficient poverty of ideas to redeem the situation.”
He argued that “Given Nigeria’s underlying economic conditions, adopting a floating exchange rate system would be an overkill. We would have encouraged the Central Bank of Nigeria to adopt a gradualist approach to FX management. A managed-floating system would have been a preferred option.”
Onanuga pointed out that last Thursday’s meeting between the President, his vice, and state governors was not to discuss currency fluctuation as Atiku claimed but food supply and how to drastically reduce the fluctuation in food prices.
Citing Tinubu’s plea to governors to allow the CBN to work and his stance not to establish a commodity board, he said, “We expected Alhaji Atiku to praise President Tinubu for maintaining this stance and for not interfering with the business of Central Bank.
“It is false and preposterous for Atiku to claim that CBN’s FX management policy was hurriedly put together without proper plans and consultations with stakeholders and that the apex bank is hamstrung by Tinubu’s government in implementing a sound FX Management Policy’ that would have dealt with such issues as increasing liquidity, curtailing/regulating demand, dealing with FX backlogs and rate convergence.’
“Contrary to former VP Atiku’s claim, Cardoso’s CBN is implementing a raft of policies to stabilise the naira and end volatility in the market and this is already yielding some positive results.
“Atiku will agree that the rise in capital inflow suggests massive investors’ confidence in Nigeria and the policy direction of the Tinubu administration,” it argued.” He emphasized.