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.”
