Harsh economy: Fayose urges Buhari to devalue naira

… Says FG’s forex policy short-changing Nigerians, breeding corruption

EKITI State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to devalue the na­tion’s currency.

Fayose said: “With the gap between the official rate of N199 and open market rate of over N400 to one dollar, the naira has already been devalued.”

He said President Bu­hari should, therefore, stop deceiving himself and short-changing Nigerians, especially states and lo­cal councils in the country with his forex folicy.”

Governor Fayose, who said there was no time in the history of Nigeria that the gap between dollar of­ficial rate and open market rate was more than N200, pointed out that it made no economic sense for the Federal Government to be calculating the country’s revenue on the basis of the Central Bank of Ni­geria (CBN) official rate of N199 to a dollar, while states and local councils that are sharing the reve­nue with the Federal Gov­ernment run their busi­nesses at the open market rate of over N400 to one dollar, thereby causing business to be folding up by the day and prices of goods skyrocketing every­day.

Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media to the gov­ernor, Lere Olayinka, in a statement issued in Ado- Ekiti yesterday, quoted the governor as saying apart from breeding corruption through round-tripping or foreign exchange arbi­trage, Nigerians are also being duped and middle class Nigerians, the main people that grow the coun­try’s economy, are being decimated.

He said: “President Bu­hari has travelled to 24 countries in eight months, and will be spending 16 out of the 29 days in Feb­ruary outside the country, with over $500,000 being spent on estacode, while the presidential air fleet, which includes fuelling of the planes and allowances for crew is said to be in the range of $500,000.