The Arewa Consultative Forum has urged the Federal Government to acknowledge shortcomings in its assessment of the impact of its economic reforms on Nigerians and provide clear timelines for improving living conditions.
The Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Prof. Tukur Mohammed-Baba, made the call during an interview with ARISE News on Thursday, saying the government should admit where its assessment went wrong and explain how it intends to address the consequences.
He asked, “What do I want to see from the administration? An open admission that things are not going the way they were intended, or rather, they did not do their work very well on impact analysis.”
Mohammed-Baba said the government’s justification of the reforms did not adequately address the hardship being experienced by Nigerians.
“All this attempt to justify reforms, ‘we will see the pains,’ ‘we are now feeling the pains,’ ‘the sunshine will come after the rains,’ you know, these are all hallucinations,” he stated.
He said the effects of the reforms could be seen in the cost of living and the living conditions of Nigerians.
“Look at the purchasing power of the Naira, look at the living conditions of Nigerians, look at rent, look at housing materials, look at transportation, look at electricity costs, look at transportation, see the condition of the roads in Nigeria, and above all, see the level of insecurity that has been pervading this country,” he said.The ACF spokesman also questioned whether the administration had conducted adequate due diligence before implementing the reforms.
“Look, there is what we call due diligence. Has this regime done any due diligence on the conditions of Nigerians, especially with regards to these economic conditions? Secondly, have they done any due diligence regarding the existential conditions of people, and so on?,” he queried.
Mohammed-Baba urged the government to provide specific timelines for delivering improvements rather than asking Nigerians to give it more time.
“When you say ‘more time,’ just how much more time do you need?,” he noted.
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He called on the government to set measurable targets against which Nigerians could assess its performance.
The spokesman said, “So we begin with the politicians, tell us how much time will you need, give us timelines of achievement: ‘By one year, we hope to do this. By second year, we hope to do this. By third year,’ and so on and so forth.”
