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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has lamented the devaluation of the naira currency, describing it as a ‘collective affront on the pride of Nigerian.’
HURIWA’s National Coordinator Emmanuel Onwubiko in a statement, on Tuesday, accused the administration of President Bola Tinubu for what he called ‘lust for foreign debts’, that has put the country on the brink of insolvency.
Onwubiko advocated the establishment of a civilian joint task force (Civilian–JTF) made up of social activists, labour union leaders, among others, to rally round the Naira note to pressure President Tinubu to restore the dignity and value of the Naira notes and save local industries from imminent collapse.
Also, he condemned the “rush with which the CBN is destroying the value of the Naira notes just to enrich cronies of politicians who had stashed millions of dollars in their houses during the immediate past campaign season just to recoup from what they spent to help the All Progressives Congress’s central government win the contentious 2023 General election.”
On Monday, he had accused the President Tinubu’s administration of copying his predecessor, who “kept borrowing external loans that they shared and looted away by their officials”.
He claimed that Tinubu had intensified borrowing to spend on “frivolities like allowances and salaries for his elaborate and bulky cabinet of over 47 ministers and over 100 advisers already appointed and for purchasing of the legislators at the National Assembly through the gifting of expensive jeep to each of the 496 members at a whooping cost of N160 million per day.”
He suggested the formulation of has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to introduced Structural political adjustment programme inside President Bola government, to trim down the number of appointees.
He tasked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Services (DSS), to ensure that top government officials doing round tripping with dollars and creating artificial demise of the value of the Naira notes are arrested and prosecuted as economic saboteurs.
“Why is Nigeria losing so much through crude oil thieves? What is the government doing with revenues from the FIRS, Customs, Immigration and solid minerals?
“Why is this insanity about foreign borrowing with no end in sight and therefore making Nigeria insolvent?” the statement read. It is good enough that egg heads are now heading these strategic beats so Nigerians expect transparency and accountability,” he said.
