Former Chief Executive of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof Usman Yusuf, while assessing President Bola Tinubu’s one year in office, has asserted that Nigerians haven’t fared better within the period.

He also insisted that the military can never bring solution to the insecurity in the country, noting that every crime is local and would require a local solution.

Speaking on his assessment of Tinubu’s government, he said that “the economic policies of any government should aim to fight inflation, fight unemployment and grow the economy. President Tinubu’s economic policies have caused a lot of living crisis in Nigeria, resulting in unbearable hardships on all citizens. Workers’ salaries cannot pay for rent, water, food, clothing, school fees, transportation, and other basic necessities of life.

“Runaway inflation has pauperised citizens and worsened hunger in the land. The managers of the economy are at a loss as to what to do. Their attempt at borrowing and hiking the interest rates to artificially prop up the value of the Naira against the Dollar has not and will never work. It is voodoo economics to think that taxing citizens beyond their capacity to pay will revive Nigeria’s comatose economy. Taxes do not grow economies, production does.

“The Federal Government has quietly resumed paying for the same fuel subsidy it removed on 29, May 2023. The simple questions to ask are, (1). Why is the pump price not back to where it was before the removal of subsidy? (2). Are these payments provided for in the 2024 budget? And (3), who are the new cabals benefiting from these payments?” he asked.

According to him, contrary to the official propaganda and half-truths about improvements in Nigeria’s national security, the reality on the ground particularly in the North-West and North-Central part of the country says differently. Terrorists still control a large swath of the country’s rural areas 15 and nine years into the wars against Boko Haram and bandits respectively.

“The land is still drenched in the blood of innocent citizens, villages are being ransacked and pillaged, villagers chased off their homes or abducted for ransom. Farmers are chased off their farmlands or levied on their harvests. Major highways still remain unsafe from terrorists who attack travellers, killing and abducting passengers at will for ransom. Ethno-religious conflicts and killings continue unabated.

“To be fair to President Buhari whom I have been a big critic of, he did exceptionally well in fighting Boko Haram by liberating all LGAs from the terrorists. So, he did what President Goodluck Jonathan and his South Eastern military chiefs (to borrow from your north, south lingo) couldn’t do. Having said that, President Buhari and his security team took their eyes off other security challenges like banditry in the North West and North Central and the scourge of ‘unknown gunmen’ inflicting terror in the South East.

:I have been on record as one of the few Nigerians that have been vocal about the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari left Nigeria less secure than he met it,” he said.

Speaking on his view on calls to return to parliamentary system of government, he said “there is no doubt that the American presidential system Nigeria has operated over the last 25 years has not served the citizens well. For one, it is too expensive with an unsustainably high cost of governance.

“In contrast, the British Parliamentary system that Nigeria operated during the First Republic was much cheaper and leaders were more accountable to the electorate. Most importantly, leaders of that time were more responsible and responsive to the yearnings of their people and they were also better custodians of that which they were entrusted with. You cannot say that of the current crop of leaders steering the ship of state in all tiers of government all across the country,” he reiterated. (Story adapted from The Sun)

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