A member of the Senate representing Kogi-West Senatorial District,
Senator Dino Melaye, on Sunday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to
take drastic measures on the ailing economic, including the immediate
removal of the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun; Minister of Budget and
National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma; and the Governor of the Central
bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
In a statement in Abuja, Melaye said the President must shake up his
cabinet, and accused some members of cabinet as lacking the capacity to
deliver on the mandates of their ministries and agencies.
He said Adeosun, Udoma and Emefiele should be axed for the economy to
be effectively rebooted to deliver on the change agenda of the present
administration.
Melaye said, “At the moment, it must be crystal clear to all
discerning minds that the President’s widely-acclaimed magical body
language has lost its presumed aura and efficacy. His no-nonsense
demeanor is equally neither instilling fear nor commanding respect and
loyalty from among his cabinet members.
“It is therefore obvious that the time for barking is over; now is
the time to bite and boot out all those who have demonstrated, in the
past several months, a crass lack of capacity to effectively carry out
the functions of their office.”
The All Progressives Congress senator, who is the Chairman, Senate
Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, also condemned Buhari’s
economic team led by Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, saying that “their
decisions will not be and has never been respected by the economic
managers and the bureaucracy in Nigeria.”
Melaye urged the President to, instead, constitute an ‘Emergency Ad
Hoc Economic Team’ made up of all former ministers of finance,
ex-ministers of budget and national planning, ex-CBN governors as well
as members drawn from the academia with “deep knowledge of developmental
economics to drive the economic revival programme.”
He said, “The President must immediately transit from mere rhetoric
to drastic but positive action to save the economy and Nigeria from
total collapse. The hunger in the land is real, pervasive, widespread
and debilitating for the poor masses.
“As I walk the streets of my constituency these days, I constantly
harbour a foreboding that I could be stoned by my angry constituents for
the failure of Mr. President to fulfill his campaign promises and
expectations to Nigerians.
“Nigeria is tottering on a dangerous precipice, sliding perilously to
a certain catastrophe if the current economic malaise is not halted
immediately.”