Nigerians are suffering under Buhari - Tanko Yakassai

Here is what former President Shehu Shagari's Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai told Vanguard over the weekend when he was asked if Buhari could take Nigeria to the promised land.

"Everybody in Nigeria now is crying that  life is very difficult. By this time last year, life was not as it is  today  and from my prediction, we would continue to suffer through the coming year, 2016, 2017 and probably if we are lucky we would begin to see a change in 2018, if you are not prepared, you better start getting ready.

"This hardship would not go away, not just immediately. My prediction is that perhaps if we are lucky it would begin to go away by 2018.

"I know that the government is assuring everybody that it would be a temporary situation but they know that the citizens are suffering and it wouldn’t be over because unless the government is ready to print paper money and distribute it, the economy will remain the same. If the government prints paper money, it would shoot the price of everything in this country.

You see the suffering that we are having today  is as a result of the decision of the government to introduce a Treasury Single Account system for all the government departments and agencies without proper planning.

"It is not a bad thing in itself but it is not something that happens at the blink of an eye. It is something that has to be introduced stage by stage but unfortunately the present government just announced that schedule should no longer allow accounts to be operated, all the banks most return deposit from government to Central Bank.

"The banks were lending money to businesses before out of the government deposits as well as making money from them. Now that the money is not available they are not lending to the businesses and the businesses would now begin to experience lack of activities and the result would be retrenchment.

"The problem is we suffered from this same irrational approach to government policy when Buhari was a military head of state. He decided overnight to change the currency, giving a deadline without realising that most of the people in the rural areas did not know anything like the bank."

See Vanguard for more.