A human rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, Segun Showunmi, yesterday, traded words with the National Secretary of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Bashiru Ajibola, over the economic policies of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
While Adegboruwa and Showunmi criticised the policies of the President, Ajibola described their criticism as baseless and uncalled for. Adegboruwa and Showunmi spoke in Ibadan on a topic titled, “The Tinubu’s Administration’s Economic Agenda and Policy, How Far? So Far,” an event, which was part of activities marking the 70th anniversary and Law Week of the Ibadan branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
They said the consequences of the terrible economic policies of Tinubu were mass poverty, suffering, inflation, ‘japa’ syndrome and a general sense of frustration in place of renewed hope.
“If you go through APC’s constitution and manifesto, we have devolution of power. Look at how we have not been able to tackle restructuring and true federalism. Stephen Oronsaye gave a report suggesting that we either merge some of these agencies or scrap some of them.
“We are suggesting that the President should take hold of the Constitution and manifesto of his party and implement devolution of power and full restructuring and secondly focus on infrastructure,” they said.
But responding, Ajibola said that Tinubu’s administration was not a socialist government as claimed by the duo, saying that the critics should stop using the parameter of socialism to assess Tinubu’s government.
He said: “You’re using a wrong marking scheme. It’s a very wrong assumption that Nigeria is a socialist society. Also, Chapter 2 of the Constitution talks about creating a social and equity system in a capitalist economy. As of today, the national minimum wage has been adopted and implemented.
“We’re saying there’s a serious issue of inflation in the country. That is why the focus of the 2025 budget, which is being presented today by the President, is targeted at reducing inflation. We’re embarking on massive infrastructure to achieve economic post-credit for our people.
“Although our economy is challenged, we believe that with all the efforts put together, it will become better.”