Nigeria’s former vice president Atiku Abubakar has advised President Muhammadu Buhari on the country’s best way out of its present economic situation after slashing the budget by 0.6%.
The presidential committee on the impact of the coronavirus on Nigeria’s economy had earlier disclosed that the economy is facing serious challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Timipre Sylva, the minister of state for petroleum resources, said the Nigerian economy was not in the best shape due to falling oil prices caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Atiku in a series of tweets posted on his Twitter page on Thursday, May 14, stressed that reducing the nation’s expenditure is the best way out of this economic situation.
Nigeria Cannot Afford Luxuries During an Austerity.
— Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) May 14, 2020
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PD) during the 2019 general election, further said that his counsel to the Nigerian government is to “put Nigerians first and cut your coat, not according to your size, but according to your cloth.”
Atiku explained that the budget to run the presidency and legislature has to be downsized. This includes not buying luxury cars for the resident, his vice, or any other political office holder.
He added that any budget slash that is less than 25% will not be in the interest of the nation.
Atiku urged the government to leave the salaries of civil servants but reduce that of political appointees and sell 8 or 9 of the jets in the Presidential Air Fleet.
The ex-vice president further said Nigeria must invest in the goose that lays the golden egg.
Recall that Atiku called on the federal government to diversify the country’s economy.
He stressed that reliance on oil was failing all mono-product economy, crude oil exporters.
Atiku, in a statement titled: How to pull Nigeria from the brink, said Nigeria and her contemporaries had to “cure their addiction to sweet crude.”
He added that the country needed to diversify the economy, saying that though it is easier said than done, it does not mean it is an impossible task.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the federal government of Nigeria has been forced to slash the 2020 budget by N312 billion following the crash of crude oil prices in the global market due to coronavirus.
The 2020 budget has now been cut from the initial N10, 594, 362,364,80 to N10,276, 887,197,728.
However, this decision by the executive arm of the federal government is subject to the approval of the legislature.
The proposal by President Muhammadu Buhari seeks to cut in the oil benchmark from $57 per barrel to $30 per barrel and reduce the daily production of oil from 2.8 million per barrel to 1.70 million.
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