A former DG Nigeria Association Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Dr, John Osemede has said that President Bola Tinubu is reneging on his promise to end poverty and prioratise trade.
Osemede said this on Thursday in an interview monitored by NewsNGR.
His comment comes in the wake of hardship and economic challenges resulting from the removal of fuel subsidy and floating of the naira in 2023.
According to a World Bank projection, over 40.7 per cent or over 100 million Nigerians live below the international poverty line by the end of 2024.
Osemede said, “The president announced subsidy was gone. He could have equally used that fiat to reduce interest rate to 5 per cent. We have two houses- Upper and Lower and Nigeria at this moment can’t fund this.
“Mr. President said he is happy with his ministers. If you assemble all the unemployed people in Nigeria, they will be the second largest country in Africa.
“What is the population of Ethiopia- 124 million, Egypt is 1013 million and Congo DRC 102 million. So, Nigeria does not need more than 10 ministers.
“What are we producing as a country? Look at South Africa, over 30 per cent of their GDP is from solid minerals. When you talk of aviation, people go to neighbouring countries to board.
“Now we are importing things like butter and very soon, we will start importing local seasoning. Even soap which is made from palm oil is imported.
The former NACCIMA boss said Nigeria is supposed to negotiate its tariff with other countries.
“You don’t need to wait for World Trade Organisation and all that. We signed all sorts of agreements without taking the private sector along,” he added.
Osemede said, “When Mr. President came in, he poromised us Commodity Board. Have we seen the Commodity Board? Don’t you know what Commodity Board did for the Western region from 1946 to 1986. What of solid minerals and aviation?”