Soludo Slams Buhari, ‘You Took Nigeria From Bad To Worse’

[caption id="attachment_17245" align="alignnone" width="750"]Charles Chukwuma Soludo, ex-Central Bank Governor[/caption]

Former Central Bank Governor (CBN), Charles Chukwuma Soludo, has slammed the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for allegedly setting Nigeria’s economy on a path of total collapse.

This, Soludo said on Thursday in Enugu, at a public policy forum organised by the African Heritage Institution, tagged “Big Ideas Podium”.

While admitting that the Buhari administration acceded to office when Nigeria’s economy was indeed bad, Soludo however noted that the current government even “made it several times worse” after it took over in May 29, 2015.

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The former CBN governor further declared that it will take a miracle for the ruling All Progressives Congress to clean up the mess it has caused Nigerians with the dollar, even if given until 2023.

“Nigeria is now, some say, a fragile state, some say a failed state,” Soludo said.

“Nigeria is not just in recession, but in a massive economic compression; it will be a miracle for the present APC administration to return this country to the dollar size it met in May 29, 2015, if it stays for eight years, that’s till 2023.

“It is business as usual, propaganda, lies, double-speak. The current government is fighting corruption, insecurity, but we say to them, enough of the blame game.

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“They inherited a bad situation but they have made it several times worse; getting us out here is not a tea party. Nigerians should rise in unity, it should no longer be ‘let them’; only united citizens can rescue Nigeria out of this position.

“My idea is that of citizens united; we won’t get the leadership that we deserve; we won’t get the leadership that we want; we will get the leadership that we demand.

“They gave us manifestoes, promised a lot and we said ‘yea’; how many have gone back to check how far they are delivering on those promises? If any party implements 25 percent of its manifesto, Nigeria will get better.

“If you check any state run by APC, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the three parties that have governors, can you spot any difference in any of those states that will distinguish one party from another? They are the same.

“APC said in its manifesto that it will restructure Nigeria, that Nigeria was not one, but after election, has anybody heard about it (restructuring) again? They control 23 states and the National Assembly, all they need is one more state to get the required 2/3; so they have what it takes, but they are not talking about it again.

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“If we don’t rise to hold them by the jugular, Nigeria cannot go anywhere. We have to start preparing for a post-oil economy; insanity is to repeat the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.”

Soludo, who went further to fault the clamour for Igbo presidency, said “you could have the president and his vice as well as all the ministers come from one village, but the life of all the people in that village will not move from point A to point B.”

“We want a new Nigeria where it does not matter where the president comes from; we want to set a structure where each citizen will work hard, where security is guaranteed,”he said.

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