Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the 2023 presidential election, has nothing fresh to offer, according to Nduese Essien, a senior member of the People’s Democratic Party and a former minister of land, housing, and urban development for Akwa Ibom State. 

He asserted that Tinubu’s claim that his administration will bring the value of the Naira to level with the US dollar is only a campaign gimmick that cannot succeed and that the APC nominee lacks the necessary magic wand to reverse the situation and bring the Naira’s value to parity with the dollar.

Essien said, “Tinubu made this kind of promise in 2015 when he was campaigning for Muhammadu Buhari, and seven years down the line, he couldn’t show the president how to appreciate the Naira.

“Why then should anybody with knowledge of how the global economy works, believe him?

That’s how it started in 2014, leading to the opposition against President Goodluck Jonathan on how the Naira will be at par with the USA Dollar if Buhari is voted to power”, Chief Essien said, adding that Tinubu’s claim is unrealistic, given the fact that he may likely follow the economic path of Buhari, if voted into power.

The term house of Representatives member, who chaired the South South caucus of the National Assembly from 1999 to 2003 castigated the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, in which Tinubu is co-traveller, for the abysmal depreciation of the Naira from where they met it at 150 to present day value of 610 to a dollar.

“Why has Tinubu failed to assist President Buhari in arresting the steady fall of the Naira against other international currencies but waiting until he becomes President in 2023 before he miraculously intervened?” Essien queried.

He added, “International currencies are not manipulated the way Bola Tinubu surreptitiously took the Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited Headquarters to Lagos away from its area of operations to the detriment of the Oil Producing Areas and has continued to sustain its maintenance there despite all the protests from the rest of the country and in keeping with international best practice.

“Tinubu cannot be trusted because as the leader of the All Progressive Congress, the party has failed the country in all its campaign promises, he has nothing new to offer the nation.”

Chief Essien called on Nigerians of voting age to make use of the extension given by INEC on registration for PVC, to be part of the leadership recruitment process.