The former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, has questioned the whereabouts of the savings from the fuel subsidy removal and naira floating policies under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
Amaechi, who was a former Minister of Transportation under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, made this known during an interview with Channels Television on Thursday.
According to him, the Nigerian economy is dying under Tinubu.
Amaechi noted that the purchasing power of Nigerians has been watered down by the Tinubu government.
“You are making savings from the fuel subsidy and floating the naira; where is the money?
“You get N16,000, for instance; in Buhari’s government, that will get you ten times as much, for instance, let’s assume, today, you get 120,000. You can only get four tyres. Which do you prefer?” he said.
Amaechi is part of the opposition coalition alongside former Vice President Atiku Abubakar that moved to the African Democratic Congress on Wednesday.
Recall that in 2023, Tinubu’s administration announced the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira. Prices of goods and services in Nigeria skyrocketed because of the policies.
Meanwhile, Tinubu’s government has stressed that the cooling of inflation, which stood at 22.97 per cent in May, and the relative stability of the naira at the foreign exchange market (N1,525.83 per dollar as of Thursday) are indications that the country’s economy is on the right track.
In January 2023, before Buhari exited the seat of power, Nigeria’s headline inflation stood at 21.82 per cent, and the naira exchange rate to the dollar was around N745.