Former Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, has described the economic policies of President Bola Tinubu’s administration as inhuman, saying it has devastating impacts on the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
Dalung, who served during former President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term in office, said this during an interview with Channels TV on Tuesday.
He stated that the government policies had led to rising inflation and increasing costs of living.
He said, “When you demand sacrifice, sacrifice should begin with you as a leader then people will follow that’s why people are referred to as followers but reverse can not be the case.
“The economic policies we are dealing with are inhuman policies that have affected the lives of the citizens terribly, in recent history, Nigerians have not faced terrible situations like the one we are dealing with.
“The sudden withdrawal of fuel subsidy without cushioning mechanism on the ground, the floating of the naira and the attempt by the government introduced this the same method of sharing money have indeed compounded the whole situation.
“You have inflation rising, you have costs of living increasing, I mean Nigerians can not afford to eat, the policies of this government from May 29 have not been too favorable to the common people.”
Dalung also criticised some people for blaming problems facing the current government on the previous administration, saying the two governments were essentially the same.
“The argument by people in government that they inherited this, it is the same APC government. Most of the people who were defending this were also in Buhari’s government.
“Are they now saying the exit of Buhari on May 29 changed things? No, it is not a new government, it is the same APC, the same manifesto, they have no difference,” he said.
Dalung said Buhari’s administration did not succeed in combating corruption during its eight years in power, noting that the government’s anti-corruption was a failure and that corruption actually increased during Buhari’s presidency.
He cited examples of high-profile corruption cases that occurred during Buhari’s tenure, including the alleged misappropriation of N1.9 billion by the Accountant General of the Federation and the alleged embezzlement of N81 billion by the Niger Delta Development Commission during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said, “In terms of the performance of Buhari’s government in eight years you have to measure the government with democratic commitments, the promises the government made.
“The war against corruption was one of the major promises we made to Nigerians in 2015 and the government didn’t at all succeed in fighting corruption rather monumental corruption surfaced worse than pre-2015.
“I take an instance, in one transaction the Accountant General of the Federation was accused of misappropriating 1.9 billion naira under our watch, under Buhari’s government and that is the government that promised to fight corruption.
“Under the same Buhari’s government during the COVID in NDDC, 81 billion was spent during the COVID by that agency, it became an issue that was investigated by the National Assembly and ti turned into a comedy where the GMD was invited and he suddenly fainted and the issue died as he collapsed also.
“There are so many instances of some of these corrupt practices, the government promised to fight corruption but corruption appears to have overwhelmed the government and defeated it.”
