Dismantle your economic team, Showunmi tells Tinubu

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Otunba Segun Showunmi, has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to dismantle his economic team, saying it doesn’t represent the nation’s diversity.

Showunmi, who is also the National Coordinator of the National Opposition Movement Coalition (NOMC), codenamed “The Alternative”, spoke at an interactive session with newsmen in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

He described Tinubu’s economic team as pro-Yoruba, adding that the some of the government’s policies, especially naira devaluation, have impoverished many Nigerians.

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Showunmi also slammed the administration for running a “beggarly economy” through constant dashing out of palliatives to citizens rather than addressing the fundamentals of the economy.

The PDP chieftain expressed concern that Tinubu has turned a blind eye to inclusiveness in his appointments, most especially in the economic team.

He said, “Carelessnessly, they have not balanced their cabinet in a way that sensible people who are not bigots can accept that they have tried to be inclusive.

“What they have done is that they have been careless with managing the diversity of the country. Any government that takes all the finance infrastructure, all the revenue infrastructure, all the spending infrastructure, and the leadership of same to be in one ethnic group, will be wrong for the nature of our own type of federalism.

“It’s our duty to preserve the sanity, the inclusivity, the balance, the sense of camaraderie and unity of this nation… He should dismantle that economic team that is too pro-Yoruba as a way of letting people know that he is not doing it because he wants to favour (Yorubas)… Afterall, their policies have not favoured us other than it has impacted on others.”

He, however, cautioned the North against what he called dangerous rhetorics against the Tinubu administration, saying his policies have not favoured the South West against other regions.

“I have not heard anybody is giving the Yorubas subsidy to be buying petrol other than the price they’re selling it. And I have not heard that sharing palliatives or whatever it is that he is doing to the economy, he is doing it specially for them.

“This unnecessary victimization has to stop,” he said.

Showunmi also tackled the Tinubu-led ECOWAS on the handling of the crisis which led to Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso pulling out of the regional body, describing it as amateurish.

He submitted that Nigeria and other ECOWAS members ought to have been more sympathetic to their fellow Africans rather than dumping them in the hands of ‘colonialists.’

Speaking on the NOMC, the PDP stalwart said the movement remains a civic platform aimed at engaging political actors, stakeholders, civil society, and democratic institutions.

He also stressed the importance of reorienting citizens on the dangers of electing individuals with questionable wealth or integrity into leadership positions.