Former Vice President Abubakar Atiku on Sunday urged President Bola Tinubu to learn from his Argentinian counterpart, President Javier Milei, if indeed he is serious about turning around the economic fortunes of Nigeria.
Atiku, a presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential poll, said he took a keen interest in reading a recent report by Reuters titled: “Argentina’s Market Double Down on Milei as Investors ‘Start to Believe’,” because both countries closed the last quarter of 2023 on a similar path of economic downturn.
While in the case of Nigeria, a new government was installed about the middle of 2023, for Argentina, Atiku said the new government came on board in December, with both leaders inheriting a disoriented economy, but applying different measures to recovery.
According to him Milei who inherited a worse condition than Nigeria’s is gradually returning his country to a place where investors are ‘starting to believe’, noting that this should serve as a lesson to Tinubu.
He argued that Nigeria is where it is today simply because of what Tinubu has done or did not do.
Atiku stated that Tinubu’s shifting the blame on the opposition and, even ridiculously, his predecessor is needless and myopic, explaining that market forces don’t play politics, but respond to actions and inactions.
“President Milei’s major campaign promise was to reposition the Argentine economy after years of slow growth, high debt levels, triple-digit inflation (160 percent when he took over the presidency in December 2023) and 40 percent poverty rate.
“His first task was to begin implementing measures to achieve greater macroeconomic stability and promote higher global competitiveness. He came into the office with a comprehensive stabilisation plan, which seeks to implement far-reaching measures within the context of a market-oriented economy.
“He started off cutting government expenditure by cutting the size of government and wastages; blocked stealing of government funds, and attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through concessions, tax holidays, and improved ease of doing business.
“President Milei flies regular business class for all his travels and does not offer the presidential fleet of Argentina for his son’s birthday. Likewise, there is no settlement for his hangers-on and political allies through unwieldy and burdensome appointments to public offices.
“Argentina’s Milei did not build the largest government like Tinubu did at a time when our economy was and still on its knees. The examples set by President Milei are the requirement of leadership in a time when the economy has begun to fail the expectations of the people,” he stated.
However, on the other hand, he said that the reforms so far implemented by the Tinubu administration are ad hoc and hurriedly put together without proper review, unlike Argentina’s Milei, who is sequencing his reforms.
According to the businessman cum politician, Milei anticipates the after-reform shocks and admits that things will be tough for the people, but is fully prepared for the aftershocks and has in place mitigating pills.
“He walks the talk. He makes sacrifices himself by giving up perks of office. It is not business-as-usual for the presidency while the people are called upon to make sacrifices.
“Argentina runs a lean government by reducing the number of ministries, privatising nearly 40 state-owned enterprises, and reducing wasteful spending,” he added.
Conversely, Atiku said that Tinubu in Nigeria increased the number of ministers and ministries and is spending enormous resources renovating houses for himself, his deputy, and the first lady. “That is nothing short of Nero playing fiddle while Rome is on fire!” he said.
Worse still, he pointed out that Tinubu has refused to roll up his sleeves and do the work that he signed up for, but has along with his team preoccupied himself with behaving like “Napoleon and Squealer”, characters in the satire book Animal Farm, who made it a state policy scapegoating Snowball (the opposition) for their own failures arising from their ill-advised policies.
“I am attracted to the reforms in Argentina because Javier Milei’s stabilisation plan bears a similar emblem with my ‘Recover Nigeria Plan’. It is a plan that I am more than willing to disclose details of its workings with the current government in order to take Nigeria out of the depth of hunger and anger that we find ourselves.
“The plan includes strategic steps we must take to recover the economy and make it stronger, dynamic, resilient, and competitive. We had outlined plans to relax the fiscal constraints facing us to include: Improving spending efficiency and blocking leakages,” he noted.
He emphasised that he intended saving money through a review of fiscal support for non-performing government enterprises and the privatisation of those that cannot sustain themselves.
Besides, Atiku said he would have taken steps to improve spending efficiency through a gradual reduction in government recurrent expenditures, ensuring that those expenditures reflect higher levels of service delivery.
Over the medium term, he argued that recurrent expenditures should not exceed 45 percent of the budget, explaining that he would review government procurement processes to ensure high levels of transparency, competitiveness, and value-for-money and eliminate all leakages.
“Unless, and until there are clear-cut policies and pathway to economic rejuvenation predicated on a leadership-led sacrifice, there will be discontentment, especially among the youths, which may find expression in protests and for which it will be silly to continue to blame the opposition for,” he stressed.
Emmanuel Addeh and Chuks Okocha
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