The United Action Front of Civil Society, otherwise known as the organised Civil Society of Nigeria at the end of the review meeting of its National Coordinating Team on Sunday decried the prevailing hardship in the country.
The group condemned the “choking economic policies imposed on the country by the newly inaugurated administration of Senator Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)”.
In a statement signed by 'Wale Okunniyi, Head, National Coordinating Centre, United Action Front of Civil Society on Sunday described the policies of the government as anti-poor.
It denounced the “insensitive” and “unconscionable” imposition of government policies without proper consultations and engagement with stakeholders and citizens despite the “foreseeable overriding negative effects of these policies on the Nigerian masses”.
It accused President Tinubu’s government of foisting renewed despair, hardship and hopelessness on Nigerians as consequences of its policies to “levy the masses to enrich the powerful”.
The organised civil society also condemned the monetary policy of the All Progressives Congress government purportedly aimed at eliminating the discrepancies in Nigeria's exchange rate.
It said the monetary policy had further worsened the multi-dimensional poverty amongst over 40% of Nigeria’s populace as evidenced in the free fall of Naira to a despicable new low hitherto never experienced or imagined in the history of Nigeria. “The new administration appears unmindful of the ripple effects of the devaluation of Naira, considering low level of production and huge dependence on import for household and industrial items in Nigeria,” it said.
The organised civil society under the leadership of Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, Nkoyo Toyo, Shehu Sani, among others added that while the Nigerian masses “are yet groaning as a result of the unbearable impact of the increase in the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS), the government has again desperately gone ahead to also announce an increase in the electricity tariff effective from July 1, 2023”.
The civil society described the “cumulative crunching effects of the anti-poor policies of the Tinubu administration as punitive and unacceptable to the majority of Nigerians”.
It said, “It is again regrettable that the new administration appears oblivious to the implications of creating a mass population of dependents and paupers, who will be forced out of jobs and further consigned to the bracket of multi-dimensional poverty as a consequence of the punitive economic policies that deplete household income and make survival difficult for majority of Nigerians, which raises the question, whether Tinubu believes that the mass of the Nigerian people voted for him as President?
“For It is regrettable that the new administration of Tinubu rather than offer Nigerians a new lease of life, has continued with the anti-people's policies of its predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.