From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has challenged the Federal Government to show clear policy direction in 2024 and avoid groping in the dark.
Atiku, in a statement, decried the hardship experienced by Nigerians in 2023 and said things would have been different in the country had the government been smarter with its policy prescriptions.
The former vice president said rising cost of food items as well as goods and services, poor economy and security challenges are issues the country has to face squarely in 2024.
“The past year was definitely a challenging year, but the lessons we took away from it are what should prepare us for the future that the New Year holds.
“It is my belief that one of the reasons the Almighty created time and season is for us to take stock of our realities and effect necessary amends.
“Certainly, many families and businesses already know the intensity of the trying times that we are currently going through – though we could have taken a completely different pathway, had the government been smarter with its policy prescriptions.
“The rising cost of food items, goods and services, the malfunction in our national economy and the degenerating state of our national and community security are all existential challenges that we have to face squarely in the New Year,” he said.
Atiku said while many companies have closed their operations in Nigeria and moved their enterprise elsewhere with clearer policies and visions, the situation of life for Nigerians keeps getting direr.
“To walk back from these throes of adversities will require a well-thought vision of national planning that will deliberately make the common people of Nigeria the centrepiece of our development.
“Year 2024 is still new on its canvas; and so, there is ample time for the current government to champion a pathway to addressing the acute hardship that Nigerians are going through.
“The government must show a clear direction of its policy projections and desist from the subsisting behaviour of groping in the dark,” Atiku said.