TRIBUNE
Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has offered components of his plans to President Bola Tinubu for adoption to stabilise the economy.
He has also told Tinubu that he must emulate the new president of Argentina, Javier Milei’s approach to economic reforms, which he has observed inspired investors’ confidence in the South American country.
In a statement he issued on Sunday, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election said he was willing to provide details of his “Recover Nigeria Plan” to the current administration to move citizens out of hunger and poverty.
He stated: “I am attracted to the reforms in Argentina because Javier Milei’s stabilisation plan bears a similar emblem with my Recover Nigeria Plan.
“It is a plan that I am more than willing to disclose details of its workings with the current government in order to take Nigeria out of the depth of hunger and anger that we find ourselves in.
“The plan includes strategic steps we must take to recover the economy and make it stronger, dynamic, resilient, and competitive.
“We had outlined plans to relax the fiscal constraints facing us to include:
Improving Spending Efficiency and Blocking Leakages; Saving money through a review of fiscal support for non-performing government enterprises and the privatisation of those that cannot sustain themselves;
Steps to improve spending efficiency through a gradual reduction in government recurrent expenditures, ensuring that those expenditures reflect higher levels of service delivery.
“Over the medium term, recurrent expenditures should not exceed 45% of the budget.
“A review of government procurement processes to ensure high levels of transparency, competitiveness, and value-for-money and eliminate all leakages.
“Unless, and until there are clear-cut policies and pathway to economic rejuvenation predicated on a leadership led sacrifice, there will be discontentment, especially among the youths, which may find expression in protests and for which it will be silly to continue to blame the opposition for.”
Atiku informed that he read a recent report titled: “Argentina’s market double down on Milei as investors ‘start to believe.’”
He said that he took a keen interest in reading the report because Argentina and Nigeria closed the last quarter of the year 2023 were on a similar path of economic downturn.
Noting that Argentina’s Milei approach to reforms should serve as a lesson for Tinubu, the former vice president said the Nigerian president runs an over bloated government that needs to the downsized and leakages blocked.
He stated: “In the case of Nigeria, a new government was installed at or about the middle of 2023, for Argentina, the new government came on board in December.
“Both leaders inherited a disoriented economy, but both applied different measures to recovery.
“President Javier Milei of Argentina was sworn into office on 10 December 2023. He inherited a worse condition than Nigeria’s.
“But what he did to return his country to a place where investors are ‘starting to believe’ should serve as a lesson to Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu.”
