One-time Presidential aide during the time of late Shehu Shagari as President, Professor Pat Utom, said the naira could be saved from further going south by corrupt politicians at the instance of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The naira’s value against the United States’ dollar has been on the decline to the point that at the parallel market a dollar is currently exchanged for over a thousand naira inducing inflation.
Utomi, a professor of political economy and management expert attributed the situation to ill management of the country’s resources, low productivity and habitual corruption by political elite.
He made those claims on Arise TV breakfast programme, Morning Show, on Monday, saying one of the ways to save the naira is for President Bola Tinubu to give the corrupt-rich elite the kind treatment Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi gave money bags in the kingdom in 2017.
“Tinubu can also save the naira by gathering corrupt political elite at the Federal Palace Hotel, and made them coughed out money.
“By our actions, like buying N160m cars for lawmakers, we won’t be taken serious. Our politicians just want to capture the state and don’t know what to do with stolen money. They have weakend our institutions with corruption,” Utomi asserted.
Recall that the Saudi crown prince made a sweeping crackdown on corruption after he first detained senior princes, ministers and top businessmen at Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh.
At the end, he recovered over $106bn through settlements.
