Former Vice President, Atiku Abuabar, has said foreign investors would avoid Nigeria as long as the current administration stuck to propaganda as a state policy, instead of focusing on attracting real investors.
Atiku also said the fact that President Bola Tinubu’s son and his surrogates were on the board of companies owned by Gilbert Chagoury clearly constituted a conflict of interest.
Atiku who said this in a statement signed by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, in Abuja yesterday, advised President Tinubu to focus more on “attracting real investors than adopting propaganda as a state policy.
“Atiku noted that Tinubu’s son, Seyi, was a director on the board of CDK Integrated Industries, a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group, which manufactures ceramic tiles and sanitary towels.
Citing a report by Paris-based Africa Intelligence News Agency where it was revealed by the Corporate Affairs Commission that Seyi was a business associate of Chagoury, Atiku said it was “not surprising that the Chagoury Group had become the biggest beneficiary of the Tinubu largesse.”
Atiku said: “Thanks to quality reporting by Africa Intelligence, our suspicions have been confirmed that Chagoury and Tinubu are, indeed, business partners and it has been formalised with Seyi on the board of one of Chagoury’s firms.
“It has become obvious that even to the undiscerning that the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway is being done in a hurry purely because of the business relationship between Tinubu and Gilbert Chagoury, the owner of Hitech, the contractor that was awarded the contract for the highway project in contravention of the procurement laws.
Atiku stated further: “Tinubu has been globe-trotting in search of foreign direct investments. He claims to have secured over $30 billion from various companies, but none has been forthcoming
“Rather, all manufacturing firms have been posting heavy losses while some are exiting due to his poorly implemented exchange rate unification policy with even Aliko Dangote describing it as a huge mess at the recent annual general meeting of Dangote Sugar Refinery.
“The IMF in its latest report stated that Nigeria will by the end of the year become the 4th largest economy in Africa behind South Africa, Egypt and Algeria, a disgraceful development for a nation, which was the largest in Africa by a mile when the PDP left the stage in 2015.
“Investors are seeing how local businesses are being treated and will not come to a place where their investments will not be protected. In saner climes, businesses such as Landmark would have been given at least two years’ notice in order for effective planning.
“But Tinubu’s eagerness to satisfy his business partners impaired his ability to coordinate the project properly…”
