Mr Yabaji Sani, a former National Chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), has called on Nigerians to be patient with the President Bola Tinubu led administration as it tries to correct the mistakes of the past.
Sani said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
The former IPAC chairman spoke on his score card of the present administrations one year in office.
“The problems of this administration can be greatly linked to the mistakes and failures of past administration and one year maybe too soon to assess the performance of this government.
“We all know the nature and complexity of the country we have found ourselves and the numerous challenges we have bedevilling us that was handing over to this government too.
“The mistakes of past administrations including failures to address issues of critical concerns like financial leakages in key revenue generating sectors such as the oil and gas is why we are in a mess.
“When subsidy issue was introduced by previous government it was in order to cushion the effect of the system of government that we have which is the capitalist system,” he said.
Sani added:“The first steps taken by Tinubu in removing subsidy on petroleum product and the unifying of naira without thoughts on how to cushion the effect of both policies was wrong.
“The president announced these steps and told us that some people were behind the mal-administration of the subsidy and that only a few people were taking advantage of it and denying others the benefits of subsidy.
“But now he has removed the subsidy and it has resulted in the hardship of the citizens and the source of the leakages is still yet to be addressed.”
Sani urged the government to probe the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd (NNPCL) as it was probing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) because they were acted together in the subsidy saga.
He said that the government should show political will in genuinely fighting corruption by probing the NNPCL
He also advised the government to focus on securing the oil and gas sector where most of its revenue were generated from to ensure that there were no more leakages.
“Where does the governmnet get money to put in the reserves to support the currency, it is from crude oil and gas.
“90 per cent of our revenue is from the oil and gas sector and NNPC is in charge, so why is nothing being done to probe it.
“This is what the last administration did and that is why we are where we are today economically and Tinubu still has the time to correct this wrongs by probing NNPC and ending leakages,“ he said.
Sani urged the government to prioritise areas of concerns such as insecurity, education, corruption amongst others where the last administration failed and ensure improvement.
The former IPAC chairman urged the government to opened with its challenges and welcome constructive criticism of opposition parties in order to sustain democracy in the country.
He said that in the absence of opposition party, there would be no active and vibrant government and democracy would be eroded.
“The government should demonising opposition parties they are only doing their work as opposition and that are the essence of democracy.
“If opposition do not talk and keep the government on its toes, who will tell them. We don’t want this government to fail because we have invested so much in the democracy of the country.
“If the government fails we have also failed as opposition and political stakeholders and we would loss our democracy and Nigerians will continue to wallow in this unnecessary hardship.
“We want democracy to survive and succeed so government should take constructive criticism, take action, work on its weaknesses and get in the right track.“ he said.
Sani commended the resilience of Nigerians for their ability to adapt to changing times and still remain patriotic to the country in words and actions. (NAN)
