Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s Special Assistant on Public Communication, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, has accused President Bola Tinubu of appointing his critics into government positions as a means to silence the opposition.
Shaibu specifically criticized Tinubu’s appointment of tax expert Taiwo Oyedele, who has been vocal in criticizing the government’s failures.
“The recent appointment of Taiwo Oyedele, a tax expert at PwC, was only a ploy to get him to stop speaking about the government’s failures as he had been doing almost on a daily basis on television, radio and social media.”
Shaibu believes that this appointment is a ploy to stop Oyedele from speaking out against the government.
He also compared Tinubu’s actions to those of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who appointed individuals to his economic advisory team but did not take their advice.
Shaibu suggests that Tinubu is attempting to gain legitimacy and silence credible voices of opposition through these appointments.
He also alleges that Tinubu is buying over opposition figures to legitimize his government after a questionable electoral victory.
“It is common knowledge that Mr. Oyedele is the loudest voice as regards tax reforms. Last Saturday, he pointed out some of the wrong tax policies of the APC government.
“In a bid to silence him, he was appointed chairman of a tax reform committee yesterday (Friday), but no other members were announced. Probably, they want him to work alone.
“With this new appointment, Mr Oyedele will no longer be able to speak about the government’s failures. Mr. Oyedele would do well not to allow himself to be rubbished by Tinubu, a man whose only secret to economic boom is using firms linked to him to generate tax for a commission just as he did in Lagos.
“Mr. Oyedele must not allow himself to be deceived by this appointment. In 2019, President Buhari similarly appointed Doyin Salami, Chukwuma Soludo, and Bismark Rewane into his economic advisory team, but he never took their advice for one day. In the end, Nigeria was plunged into one of its worst economic crises ever with an unprecedented debt profile, multi dimensional poverty, and never before seen unemployment figures.”
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
