Fayose says PMB should stop the self-deception, naira is already devalued

Mr. Ayodele Fayose, Ekiti State Governor, has indicated that the continued persistence by President Buhari that the naira would not be devalued is an act of self-deceit, as the naira is already losing value going by its free fall to the U.S dollar.

 “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.

“Therefore President Buhari must stop deceiving himself and shortchanging Nigerians, especially the states and local councils in the country with his forex policy.”
The governor in a statement by his media aide, Mr. Lere Olayinka, issued in Ado-Ekiti Sunday, said aside from breeding corruption through round tripping or foreign exchange arbitrage, Nigerians were also being duped, while middle class Nigerians who grow the country’s economy are being decimated.

He lamented that there was no time in the history of Nigeria that the gap between the official rate of the dollar and secondary market rate exceeded N200.

He pointed out that it made no economic sense for the federal government to keep computing the country’s revenue on the basis of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) official rate of N199 to a dollar while states and local councils that share the revenue with the federal government run their businesses at the parallel market rate of over N400 to the dollar, thereby causing enormous distortions as businesses fold up by the day and the prices of goods and services skyrocket.

The governor said Buhari was applying his 1984 failed economic policy during which the prices of goods were fixed, not minding the cost of supply, such that essential commodities like milk and sugar became scarce and Nigerians were made to line up in the sun to buy rationed commodities.

He advised the president to pay more attention to the ailing economy of the country instead of junketing around the world, wasting $1 million per foreign trip, saying: “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 Estacada while the presidential aircraft, which includes fueling of the plane and allowances for the crew is said to be in the range of $500,000.

“The president’s entourage obviously collects its travel allowances in dollars at the official rate of N199 and comes back to Nigeria to change it at the open market rate of N400.

“That must be the reason they encourage the president to keep junketing abroad when life is becoming unbearable for Nigerians.”

The governor added: “The situation is such that Nigeria gets say $2 billion revenue in a month, calculates the $2 billion revenue on the basis of the official CBN rate of N199 and shares the revenue among the three tiers of government.

“In elementary economics, the implication is that when revenue is calculated based on N199 to the dollar and the federal government will be declaring revenue of say N400 billion to be shared by the three tiers of government, however, the value of revenue that should have been shared is over N800 billion at the open market rate of N400 to one dollar.

“Meanwhile, the three tiers of government pay salaries to workers on the basis of N199 per dollar while the same workers pay for goods and services that are priced at the open market rate of N400 to one dollar.”