Phrank Shaibu, special assistant to Atiku Abubakar, says
President Bola Tinubu is offering appointments to his critics to silence them.
Shaibu spoke in reaction to the appointment of Taiwo
Oyedele, fiscal policy partner and Africa tax leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers
(PwC), by Tinubu as chair of a presidential committee on fiscal policy and tax
reforms.
In a statement on Saturday, Shaibu said the president
appointed Oyedele to stop him from commenting on the failures of the federal
government.
Shaibu said former President Muhammadu Buhari allegedly did
the same and never took the counsel of those he appointed.
“It is common
knowledge that Mr Oyedele is the loudest voice as regards tax reforms,” he
said.
“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 the
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, multidimensional
poverty, and never before seen unemployment figures.”
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