Omokri also accused Buhari of running a criminal enterprise instead of a government while in charge
By Kehinde Okeowo
Popular social media influencer and former presidential aide, Reno Omokri has argued that former President Muhammadu Buhari destroyed the Nigerian economy during his eight years in office.
He made this known via his X-handle on Monday morning, while explaining the reason for the current economic hardship in the country.
At the end of Buhari’s tenure in May 2023, Nigeria’s debt had almost doubled from 18 per cent to 35 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while he left inflation at 22.4 per cent.
The economic hardship has continued under the administration of President Bola Tinubu made worse by the removal of fuel subsidy and volatile exchange rate.
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However, commenting on the state of Nigeria’s economy, Omokri believes the blame for the current hardship should go to Buhari, who according to him, ran a criminal enterprise instead of a government.
He went on to say the Daura-born politician would have jailed President Jonathan, if he did half of what he (Buhari) did while in power.
Speaking via his social media page, he tweeted: “Buhari Destroyed The Economy. Tinubu Is Trying to Restore It. That’s just the honest truth. Even our oil sales are useless to us now, because Buhari sold them in advance and pocketed the money.
“This is because he borrowed more than all past governments combined, until our debt service to revenue ratio was so high that even China stopped lending us money.
“The exchange rate was being subsidised with $1.5 billion every month. What you saw then was not Naira’s actual value.
“Buhari lied to you about our foreign reserve position. Those funds had been used to guarantee loans and purchases. Long and short of it all is that Buhari would have jailed President Jonathan if Dr Jonathan had done half of what Buhari did. Buhari did not run a government. He ran a criminal enterprise that turned his former recharge card selling nephew into an overnight private jet flying multi-billionaire.
“We, in the opposition know this. But some of us are playing politics with it because they lost the 2023 election, and as far as they are concerned, if they did not win, Nigeria must collapse.”
