Salami’s appointment waste of time –PDP

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the appointment of Dr. Doyin Salami as Chief Economic Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari as a waste of time.

The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said the appointment 17 months to end of the administration was a design to make the economist a scapegoat.

The opposition party noted that Salami might be diminished by the appointment as the Presidency is allegedly not known to have respect for professional advice on governance and policy.

“If the APC government did not listen to Dr. Salami as the Head of the hurriedly established Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), it will not now take his advice in his new capacity because the APC government lacks the listening ears, competence, capacity, integrity and political will and desire for good governance.

“President Buhari and the APC have never prioritised the economy. The result is a near collapsed economy with two recessions within six years; a 71 percent poverty rate, 33.1 percent unemployment rate, over $38 billion external debt and an unenviable national status as the poverty capital of the world.  For this, they desperately seek to use renowned professionals like Dr. Salami as fall guys especially as we approach the 2023 general elections.

“If President Buhari and the APC had listened to well-thought-out advice by patriotic Nigerians as well as the PDP on how to stabilise and grow the economy, our nation would not be in the current economic quagmire where over 80 million Nigerians can no longer afford their daily meals and other basic necessities of life,” the PDP stated.

The opposition party admonished Salami to protect his image “by advising President Buhari to end his reckless borrowing and grow the economy by allowing for more transparency.”