Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused the President Bola Tinubu administration of presiding over an increasingly hostile business environment, alleging that 767 factories have shut down while 335 others are operating under severe distress.
Atiku said the closures and difficulties facing manufacturers contradicted the federal government’s claims that its economic reforms were restoring growth and improving the business environment.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate stated this in response to the Presidency’s defence of Tinubu’s economic record.
Atiku, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the government’s claims of economic prosperity are largely confined to official statements, which do not reflect in the experiences of businesses and ordinary Nigerians.
According to him, the administration is celebrating Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and other macroeconomic indicators while manufacturers, small businesses and households faced rising operating costs and declining purchasing power.
He said the closure of hundreds of factories and the distress faced by many others reflected the pressure from high energy costs, multiple taxes, expensive logistics, rising electricity tariffs, and weak consumer demand.
Atiku argued that government policies could not be considered successful if they increased public revenue while reducing the economy’s productive capacity.
The former vice president argued that tax reforms should be designed to encourage production, create jobs and expand the tax base rather than place additional pressure on struggling businesses.
He also questioned the government’s borrowing policy, saying the debate should not focus solely on Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio but on the economic value generated by borrowed funds.
Regretting that businesses continued to spend heavily on alternative electricity sources, while high logistics costs and poor infrastructure remained major obstacles to production, the former vice president said infrastructure should be assessed by its economic impact rather than by the number of projects announced or commissioned by the government.
He also challenged the presidency’s explanation concerning crude-backed financing arrangements, arguing that the government had admitted that future oil earnings had been committed in ways that limited the country’s ability to benefit from favourable crude oil prices.
Atiku said the government could not claim fiscal prudence while failing to provide full details of arrangements involving future crude oil revenues.
Meanwhile, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has challenged President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to focus on addressing the country’s worsening economic and security challenges rather than what it described as an “obsession” with the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
In a statement issued yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC accused the APC of diverting attention from pressing national issues by attacking Atiku and critics of the government, rather than responding to concerns about poverty, insecurity, and the rising cost of living.
According to the ADC, the ruling party has adopted a pattern of attacking individuals and groups that draw attention to the country’s challenges rather than providing solutions.
