By Our Reporter
A former Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Chief Nduese Essien, has faulted the claim by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that he would bring the Naira at par with the United Statee Dollar if voted in as the next president of Nigeria in 2023.
Essien mocked the APC presidential candidate for making what he called false claim when he cannot help the current APC leadership under President Muhammadu Buhari to turn around the failing economy for Nigerians, thereby increasing the misery of Nigerians at home and abroad.
Chief Essien, a two-term member of the National Assembly, stated that such a campaign talk was only ‘meant for the marines’, as the APC presidential candidate has no magic wand to turn the Naira around to equate in value with the Dollar.
He said, “Tinubu made this kind of statement in 2015, when he was campaigning for Muhammadu Buhari, seven years along the line, he couldn’t show the president how to appreciate the Naira, why then should anybody with knowledge of how the global economy works, believe him.
“That’s how it started in 2014, leading to the opposition against President Goodluck Jonathan on how the Naira will be at par with the USA Dollar if Buhari is voted to power.”
According to him, Tinubu’s claim was unrealistic, given the fact that he may likely follow the economic blueprint of President Buhari, if voted into the exalted office.
The chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who also chaired the South-South caucus of the National Assembly from 1999 to 2003, blasted Buhari administration for what he described as the abysmal depreciation of the Naira from 150 to 610 per Dollar in the parallel market.
He added: “Why has Tinubu failed to assist President Buhari in arresting the steady fall of the Naira against other international currencies but waiting until he becomes President in 2023 before he miraculously intervened.
“International currencies are not manipulated the way Bola Tinubu surreptitiously took the Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited Headquarters to Lagos away from its area of operations to the detriment of the Oil Producing Areas and has continued to sustain its maintenance there despite all the protestations from the rest of the country and in keeping with international best practice.”
Chief Essien, however, called on Nigerians of voting age to make use of the extension given by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on registration to get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC), so as to vote in their preferred candidates in the forthcoming 2023 polls.