- Peter Obi Laments That Government Officials Who Should Protect Naira Now Spend In Dollar
- ‘Politicians Have Enough Dollars To Share Even Without Legitimate Means Of Earning This Dollar’
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EKO HOT BLOG reports that an aspirant for the 2023 presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi has placed the blame for the depreciating value of the naira to the dollar on politicians and government officials who, according to him, have abandoned the local currency for the greenback.
Bureaux De Change (BDCs) operators are reported as saying the naira fell sharply in the parallel market on Monday, to the tune of 0.8 per cent drop. The local currency, which traded N595 to the dollar last week, was as of yesterday being exchanged for the American currency at N600. However, at the Importers and Exporters (I&E) window, the dollar sold N415.75 to the naira, widening the margin to N184.25.
On Tuesday while featuring as guest at the Arise Television Morning Show, Obi, who used to be the governor of Anambra State, expressed worry over the poor state of the country’s economy, particularly the fast diminishing value of the naira to the dollar.
His words, “Currency is the measure of faith and trust of citizens of a nation, it is the measure of productivity. It is very worrisome that government officials who are supposed to be the protector of our local currency have abandoned the currency and are now spending dollar.
“I find it worrisome that while our our manufacturers, business people are not getting dollars to bring in for critical goods into our country, the politicians have enough of the dollars to share and these people are those who have no legitimate means of earning this dollar.”
The presidential hopeful disclosed that the Nigerian economy witnessed unimaginable downturn as a result of the undue emphasis on consumption rather than production.
Obi regretted that the country’s politics has remained largely transactional, pointing out that there is no country in the world where aspirants to public offices spend such an amount of money to purchase nomination forms.
He said that in America where Nigeria copied her democracy from, and which has a GDP of about $20 trillion, politicians pay a maximum of $4,000 for nomination forms, whereas in Nigeria with two per cent of their GDP, aspirants pay as high as $100,000 to pick nomination and expression of interest forms.
“And none of us that is paying this amount to purchase party nomination forms, has anyone asked to produce evidence of tax payment for the past 10 years,” the former Anambra governor said.
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Obi further said that the bad situation is worsened by politicians who flaunt this wealth at a time when lecturers and other non-teaching staff are on strike. This was as he also queried the rationale for spending such huge sum of money when the lecturers and pensioners are being owed one entitlement or the other.
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