Former Bauchi State governor, Isa Yuguda, attributes the current depreciation of the naira in the forex market to corrupt politicians who amass dollars and stash them away in their homes and foreign accounts.
Yuguda voiced this assertion during a conference addressing poverty in Northern Nigeria, organized by Arewa New Agenda (ANA), held in Abuja over the weekend.
He also pinpointed insecurity, panic buying, and hoarding of food commodities by Nigerians as contributing factors to the ongoing food crisis in the country.
He urged the economic team of the President Bola Tinubu government to adopt policies that would tackle the economic challenges across the country.
He also called on the Federal Government to look critically and invest in the area of security to tackle the current security challenges facing the country.
“To comment on the economic situation at this point, having known so much, is very difficult because of the state of the economy.
”What President Bola Tinubu inherited, looking at the debt portfolio, local, external debt, even our debt service ratio, which is in the ratio of almost 97%, means that every month what ever we collect 97% goes to debt service,” he said.
Addressing the security crisis, Yuguda urged President Tinubu to allocate resources towards enhancing security, emphasizing that doing so would help alleviate the ongoing food crisis.
Regarding the removal of fuel subsidy, the former governor deemed it imperative due to widespread corruption in the oil sector, where only a select few and certain countries benefit from government payments.