Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, says the points raised by Chukwuma Soludo, a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on the economy, are correct.
On Thursday, Soludo said President Muhammadu Buhari inherited a bad economy but made the situation worse.
Reacting, Laolu Akande, spokesman of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, said the former CBN governor ought to have offered progressive ideas and join hands with the current administration.
“What would have been more patriotic is that people of goodwill will join several others working with us in this administration and offer progressive ideas and join hands with a government and administration that everyone knows are led by a President and Vice-President who are trustworthy and are people of unabashed honesty, and integrity,” Akande said in a statement.
In a series of tweets on Monday, Ezekwesili said if Soludo had given his views to economic managers of another country, they would have used it to improve the economy.
Accusing the federal government of intolerance, Ezekwesili said the government made things worse by labelling Soludo “unpatriotic.”
“The FG really should desist from the unhealthy habit of assuming ill-motive on the part of people who think differently. Soludo was correct. Soludo spoke sound economic policy and FG as usual responded in prose but worsened it by tarring him and a ‘few others’ as ‘unpatriotic,” She tweeted.
“It is extremely intolerant of the FG and its spokespersons to assume that differing views on how the economy is run is ‘unpatriotic’. In a democracy, the culture of healthy debates help to coalesce best ideas for solving society’s problems. First, the FG must learn to listen.
“Second, the FG must learn to respond to criticism in a way that elevates democratic public debates. Provide evidence based counter factual. Third, the FG must know that no amount of tagging those who disagree with policy thrusts will stop some voices. Voice is core to democracy.
“If Soludo gave that feedback to another country economic managers, they would most likely appreciate it and review for improvement. Do same.”
