By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Privatisation, Orji Uzor Kalu, has commended President Bola Tinubu for ignoring the economic policy prescriptions of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) institutions.
He made a commendation following the Tinubu government’s decision to overhaul the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries.
The Abia North Senator also cited the stability of the exchange rate as a deviation from the direction of the World Bank and IMF policy.
He said Nigeria’ wouldn’t have recorded its current level of progress if the President had accepted the monetary and economic packages of the two global financial institutions.
According to a statement by his media office, Kalu stated this yesterday at the Arochukwu Local Government country home of Chief Sunday Ugwa, who hosted him.
He explained that Tinubu’s economic reforms, such as the removal of petrol subsidies, the liberalization of the foreign exchange system, the deregulation of the country’s downstream petroleum sector, the tax reform bills, and other policies, will be best for the nation.
Kalu said Nigeria’s economic problems stem from Indigenous factors, which require homegrown macro-fiscal reforms, which the President has already deployed to stimulate the economic growth and development the nation is beginning to witness.
He said, “President Tinubu removed the oil subsidy, which former President Olusegun Obasanjo refused to do, and he merged the exchange rate. We need to redefine governance models in Africa and some third-world countries.
“We must not accept all the recommendations of the World Bank and IMF; most of them are wrong. We must use homegrown policies to solve our economic problems because local issues cause most of our problems.
“The kind of decisions Tinubu has been taking are the ones no president in the history of this country dared to implement, but we all know deep within ourselves that those decisions are inevitable if we truly want to prosper as a Nation,” Kalu noted.
To buttress his position, Kalu cited the downward trend in petrol prices, describing it as a sign that the President’s reforms were beginning to yield results.
Kalu explained that there would be a reduction in prices of other goods and services;
