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| Ekweremadu |
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu yesterday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to shake up his cabinet.
Speaking during the review of the state
of the economy, Ekweremadu said: “The President needs to look at his
cabinet. He has to put square pegs in round holes. Senator Udo Udoma is
my friend, an accomplished lawyer for that matter, but in fairness to
him I believe he can do better in another ministry, especially like
trade and investment; certainly not Budget and Planning.
“The minister for Finance can do much
better in another ministry. At this critical time, we need somebody who
is more experienced to man the Ministry of Finance so that he can be
able to coordinate the strategies for this recovery.
”I also believe that we need to have
all hands on deck right now. It does not matter their religion, it does
not matter their party. We need to go all out and look for the best
brain to come and help us to come out of this recession. America was in
recession in 1930s; they recovered within three years. What did they do,
all Americans came together, irrespective of your political persuasion,
and they were able to pass solution. At this point, it does not matter
to us whether you are APC or PDP or you are non-aligned. The important
thing is that the President has to look for the best people to come
together to proffer solutions, it does not matter which party you
belong.”
Senator Akume said: “When we say that
the blame game is over, I want to emphasise that the blame game is not
yet over. We have to know what went wrong.
”Most of us were governors and we knew
what President Obasanjo did to create huge reserves for this country and
saved for the rainy day. That was why by the time he was leaving, over
$60 billion was in our foreign reserves: this was very important.”
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Local
and Foreign Debts, Senator Shehu Sani, said: “It is very unfortunate
that we found ourselves where we are deliberately because we should have
forecast that dependence on oil revenue cannot be sustainable. I must
say this very clearly that the poor in Nigeria have always lived under
recession. And what this recession has done is to increase their
hardship.
“You can’t depend on one source of
revenue and not find yourself in this kind of situation. We must cut
interest rate, start diversification of the economy, empower small
businesses so that they will be able to produce and export. The key to
getting out of this is export of goods, services. And I don’t think
finding scapegoats and shifting blame can solve the problem. Removing
the Minister of Finance will not be able to get us out of this problem
because this recession is not Nigeria alone. It is all countries that
are dependent on oil revenue.”
The Chairman, Senate Committee on
Finance, Senator John Enoh, noted that the time to think about new
direction and new ways of doing that has come.
Read more at: The Nation
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