Senator Sani Shehu, former lawmaker representing Kaduna Central in the Senate, has blamed former President Muhammadu Buhari for the current economic hardship in the country.
Sani said that some of the economic policies that President Bola Tinubu is implementing now which triggered the economic hardship should have been implemented by Buhari whom he said failed to do so and allowed the economy deteriorate.
“We must be very factual and realistic with ourselves; the problem we find ourselves today, originated, was engineered, fabricated and sustained by the Buhari administration.
“The Buhari administration, institutionally, fundamentally destroyed the Nigerian economy,” said Sani, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.
Absolving Tinubu of the blame of the current situation, the ex-lawmaker noted that having said he would implement the policies he has implemented so far during campaign, Tinubu did not deceive Nigerians.
“When Tinubu took over, he knows there is not going to be subsidy and to be realistic, he was very frank during his campaign. He said, ‘I am going to remove subsidy and whatever protest that will come out of it I will not back down’ and then people went ahead and voted for him, so he has not deceived Nigerians.
“Now he is in power, we are paying the price for the mistake of the past, for the failure of the past and for what we have refused to do in the past, so this is the reality,” he said.
With the economic hardship occasioned by some of Tinubu’s policies especially the removal of petrol subsidy and the unification of forex rate biting harder, some Nigerians in some states have taken to the streets to protest the situation.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) also joined the protest over hardship on Tuesday with a nationwide action.
The Federal Government has condemned the NLC for organising the protest, saying that it was not necessary as the government has been trying everything to alleviate the impact of the economic hardship on Nigerians.
Sani said that the NLC has the right to protest, noting that the protest to be wary of is not that of the NLC but the one which may be carried out by unorganised civil society.
