The Former Vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has criticised the $3 billion loan given to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to stabilise the naira as a fraudulent move.
Atiku referred to the stated reason for the loan as a ruse to force the naira to appreciate in the black market in a statement released on Wednesday through his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Mr Phrank Shaibu.
He continued by saying the action was merely cosmetic and unoriginal.
To him, the move
“Exposed President Bola Tinubu as a lilliputian economist that lacked ideas on how to rescue the economy he had pushed to the edge with unviable policies”
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The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Presidential Candidate in the 2023 election asserted that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, not the NNPCL, was responsible for setting monetary policy.
He further asserted that Tinubu neglected to boost foreign exchange liquidity by increasing production and exports and that oil production fell under his watch as a result of ongoing oil theft.
He said:
“The President decided to take the Jejune path of obtaining foreign loans, an inglorious road that his predecessor had travelled.
“For many years, Tinubu claimed that he built the economy of Lagos from scratch. Now, he has been exposed as a charlatan. His administration detained Emefiele and vilified him for taking FX loans from JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs running into $7.5bn, which was used in defending the naira.
“Now, Tinubu’s administration claims to have done the same thing by forcing the NNPCL to take a loan of $3bn to defend the naira. We, however, have it on good authority that this is all a ruse to force the naira to appreciate at the parallel market, an action that will further affect the government’s credibility.
“The NNPCL has failed to shed the toga of an ordinary government agency. No wonder it has refused to become a public limited liability company, as stated in the Petroleum Industry Act. The NNPCL boss, Mele Kyari, who is also desperate to retain his job, has allowed himself to become a willing political tool just like Emefiele. If the NNPCL was a publicly listed oil firm like Aramco and Mobil, would it obtain a loan in order to ‘defend the naira’?”
He criticized President Tinubu for lacking an explicit economic strategy, claiming that his policy reversals had already started to have an impact on Nigerian bonds, as reported by Bloomberg.
He said:
“The PUNCH aptly described Tinubu in its recent editorial as a loose cannon that goes around with a wrecking ball. He takes action whimsically without thinking about consequences. He announced the removal of petrol subsidies without proper planning and brought the nation to its knees.
“He forced the CBN to float the naira even though the country had liquidity problems. Now, he is on the verge of taking the West African region to war without Senate approval. Tinubu is nothing but a myth that will continue to unravel.
“He claims to have deregulated the petroleum sector, and yet NNPC is still the one determining the price of petrol. He has pegged the price of petrol and yet claimed that there is no subsidy. Nigerians must not allow themselves to be deceived by this man.”
