Oby Ezekwesili, a former presidential candidate, on Tuesday, urged the newly constituted Economic Advisory Council to make it a priority to tell President Muhammadu Buhari, how he has allegedly mismanaged the economy.
Speaking via her verified Twitter handle, Ezekwesili pointed out that the Economic Advisory Council system was copied from the American presidential system.
She also absolved Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who headed the dissolved Economic Management Team, of any blame in how the Nigerian economy had turned out.
Ezekwesili said, “The setting up a Council of Economic Advisors is in itself one of the features of the American Presidential system which we copied. Strong membership and that’s really great. I hope the first thing they do is tell the President how he mismanaged the economy in the last 4 years.
“For those who will jump on this timeline to say, ‘It was not the President that was in charge of the economy. It was the VP chairing the Economic Team’ please don’t bother. The President was managing the economy. All those bad monetary policy decisions were made by him.
“Two, the President was managing the economy. All those strange fiscal policy decisions were made by him. Both the CBN Governor and the Ministers of Finance were not acting based on any Economic Management Team decisions. For WIA. Now at least the pretence is over about economy.
“The EMT was in reality chaired by the VP who had no power over core economic policy decisions. The other side of the Presidency did not mind having him be the cannon fodder for all the extremely bad economic policy decisions. A President, not VP runs the economy. I know that.”
President Muhammadu Buhari had on Monday replaced the Economic Management Team with an Economic Advisory Council, the Presidency said. The replaced EMT was chaired by the Vice-President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo.
The new EAC Buhari named on Monday had Prof Doyin Salami as the chairman.
Other members are Dr Mohammed Sagagi (vice-chairman); Prof Ode Ojowu; Dr Shehu Yahaya; Dr Iyabo Masha; Prof Chukwuma Soludo; Mr Bismark Rewane; and Dr Mohammed Adaya Salisu (Secretary).