Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi west, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to shake up his cabinet, recommending the dismissal of Udoma Udoma, minister of budget and national planning; Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance.
The fiery lawmaker also asked Buhari to fire Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), saying he is scared of being pelted with stones by his constituents as a result of the alleged failure of the current administration.
He said the “widely-acclaimed magical body language” of Buhari has lost its efficacy, lamenting the hardship across the land.
“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,” Melaye said in a statement.
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“I was a permanent fixture at the All Progressive Congress (APC’s) Presidential campaign rallies and events, functioning mostly as the Master of Ceremonies (MC). I am a proud APC Member, a party bonafide with a great stake in the success or failure of this administration, so no one can accuse me of sour grapes or meddlesomeness.
“As I walk the streets of my constituency these days, I constantly harbor 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.”
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He said those to “face the axe immediately” if the economy must be effectively rebooted to deliver on the change agenda of the current administration are Kemi Adeosun; minister of finance, Udo Udoma, minister of budget and national planning; and Godwin Emefiele, governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“The finance minister has not only displayed gross incompetence on the job, she also lacks the basic and rudimentary grasp of economic fundamentals necessary to run a critical sector of the Nigerian economy like the finance ministry. It is time for her to go now and pave way for a qualified and experienced person to steer the Nigerian economy away from the dark woods it has sunk presently under her stewardship,” he said.
“To be sure, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma is a very charismatic man, an accomplished lawyer, and a quintessential gentleman with a fairly untainted reputation. In everyday parlance, he is a good man. But the critical job of budget and national planning minister for a huge country like Nigeria, with her prevailing economic challenges requires much more than being a good man with a great personality.
“As a lawyer, accomplished in this field as he is, Udoma’s appointment to that position is nepotism taken to very ridiculous heights; and a classic case of putting round pegs in square holes-it will, and can never fit. It is akin to saddling a carpenter with a tailor’s responsibility. The outcome under the circumstances, as has become evidently clear, is bound to be catastrophic for the economy. President Buhari must therefore do the needful now by relieving Udoma of this huge burden that is constituting a clog to the revival of the Nigerian economy.”
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He accused the CBN governor of “policy flip-flops, summersaults and inconsistencies as clear evidence of gross incompetence in the management of the nation’s fiscal and monetary policies”.
“The net effect of this inconceivable ineptitude on the part of Emefiele is the free fall in the value of the naira and the total loss of faith and confidence by the international community on the Nigerian economy,” he said.
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I have never been a fan of Melaye, but on this his submission, I support him 100#
Good talk Senator Dino Melaye. I will sincerely want Mr President to add Lai Muhammed (as someone has suggested) while we put Rotimi Amaechi, Chris Ngige, Babatunde Raji Fasola and all other ministers (for none is performing excellently well for now) on the waiting list (of those to be axed soon).
We may then consider bringing in some technocrats namely Charles Chukwuma Soludo, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Oby Ezekwesili to help us chart a new course out of the economic woes the country is in now).
This is apt from Mr. Melaye. The government turned deaf ears from May 29 till date and chose its own path that is now leading the entire country back into Egypt and slavey on or own very soil. Shame on some of us(including myself) who campaigned so much for Buhari and APC without asking fundamental questions from the bandwagon who are nor behaving irritably like Bandits, raping our economy and collective sensibility cum common sense. Haba ! Buhari and his team are actually clueless . I challenge anyone to read “Thisday ” newspaper interview grant to the aspirant Buhari then. Answers to questions on the econmy were either muddled up, turned upside down by Mr. Buhari, which is now a reality with no surprise to us as we watch the height of incompetence.