Senator Femi Okurounmu, a chieftain of Afenifere has described President Bola Tinubu’s policies in the last one year as disastrous and disappointing.
Speaking in an interview with PUNCH, Okurounmu advised Tinubu to travel to Burkina Faso and take governance lessons from the president, Captain Ibrahim Traoré who took power during a coup d’état on 30 September 2022.
He said Nigerians will applaud Tinubu if he can imitate the Burkinabe president.
” Tinubu’s policies are disastrous and disappointing; my advice for him is that he should go to Burkina Faso and take a lesson from their President. That one is governing the way an African leader should govern. If he can imitate him, we shall all start clapping”.
Okurounmu, a member of the 2014 national conference said the Tinubu administration did not handle the issues of fuel subsidy removal and naira float well.
“The present government did not handle it well at all. For one thing, a politician must always be consistent, and when he has to change his mind, he must let the people know why he has changed his mind”.
“Throughout the time that (Goodluck) Jonathan was the President, Tinubu was one of the leaders of those demonstrating against Jonathan when he wanted to remove fuel subsidy. Tinubu, Wole Soyinka, (Tunde) Bakare, and a number of them, were all demonstrating, carrying placards, carrying coffins, and so on against Jonathan for his attempt to remove fuel subsidy”.
“So, if he now thinks that there are different factors why he has to change his mind, he should let the country know; he should explain to us, instead of just coming and arbitrarily saying fuel subsidy is gone with just one sentence. With his fuel subsidy is gone announcement, he has created an inflationary crisis for the country because the price of fuel affects the price of almost everything”.
“The President removed subsidy not only from fuel; he also removed subsidy from electricity, and everything is now expensive. It has rubbished our currency; it has increased poverty in the land, a lot of people can no longer afford food items, even the common everyday foodstuffs are no longer affordable; rice, beans, tomatoes, and onions, among others”.