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The candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has described President Bola Tinubu’s nationwide broadcast as deceptive and uninspiring.
Atiku in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communication Phrank Shaibu said the aim was to dissuade the organised labour from embarking on a nationwide protest.
He maintained that the broadcast was an afterthought, noting that Tinubu removed the petrol subsidy without a plan to ameliorate the sufferings of the people who, he added, have been made poorer since the All Progressives Congress (APC) took power in 2015.
According to him, “Tinubu’s speech was hurriedly put together in order to dissuade the suffering masses and the organised labour from embarking on protests.
“Rather than apologise for removing subsidy without providing a cushion for the poor, he went about accusing subsidy thieves of being behind the current suffering.
“Tinubu also lied when he claimed that he had for years been an advocate of subsidy removal.
“This was a man who in 2012 described petrol subsidy removal as ‘the Goodluck Jonathan tax’ and sponsored protests in Lagos State.”
The former vice president stated that the N50,000 grant to small businesses the president announced in his broadcast, would be undermined by inflation, exchange rate problems, and corruption
Said him, “Tinubu says he will provide N50,000 (roughly $60) to 1, 300 nano businesses. This is reminiscent of the dubious trader moni and the monthly N20,000 spent on the public works programme of the last APC government which not only failed to stimulate the economy but also worsened poverty as funds went into private pockets.
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