Former Director General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Muda Yusuf, has stated that the reforms being carried out by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu are necessary if the country will grow beyond its present status, News About Nigeria reports.
He stated this during the weekend, adding that the review of the performance of the Tinubu-led administration in the past year requires proper contextualization.
Yusuf, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, noted that various issues, including those about legacy, impacted the outcome of the presidency in the past year.
He opined that the fuel subsidy created opportunities for corruption and bleeding in the country, adding that the state of affairs in the sector was a major disincentive to investors in the downstream oil sector.
“There were significant legacy issues that significantly impacted performance outcomes, especially from a macroeconomic point of view.
“There was a legacy of an incredibly dysfunctional foreign exchange market riddled with round-tripping and all manners of malpractices,” he stated.
Yusuf further stated that some other activities that are to be contextualised before concluding on the performance of the President in the past year include, the huge backlog of mature foreign exchange obligations and the vandalisation of oil production facilities with incredible impunity.
He maintained that the administration has made significant progress in restoring some sanity to the oil-producing areas, even though it is a work in progress.
He, therefore, appealed to Nigerians to exercise patience, as reforms take time to be prepared and executed and might even take longer for the results to be felt.
“My view is that the reforms were necessary to pull back the economy from the brink,” he added.
