Tinubu’s Economic Team are tax collectors, not economists—NEF member

Maureen Aguta

A member of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Usman Yusuf, has said that Bola Tinubu’s government has made Nigerians more hopeless than the promised renewed hope.

Yusuf, a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), said this on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme.

Tinubu, whose campaign centred on ‘Renewed Hope’, has implemented policies that have made Nigerians grapple with soaring inflation and a steep rise in living costs, leading to protests and widespread condemnation.

Reacting to this, Yusuf said, “People have lost hope. It pains me to see our people lining up to collect cups of palliatives. Renewed Hope has turned into hopelessness.”

“The last one year has been a year of nothing but deception, destitution and hopelessness.

“From next week, they will start telling us their propaganda,” the NEF member continued.

“What have they done to benefit ordinary people? In a span of one year, they have brought millions of people back into multidimensional poverty, they have pushed millions more children out of school because their parents cannot pay their school fees.”

The ex-NHIS secretary described the economic management team of Tinubu as “tax collectors” rather than “economists.”

“The economic team, to me, looks more like tax collectors than economists. Taxation does not grow the economy; only production does,” he stated.