'How floating the Naira benefits you' - PDP chieftain explains Tinubu’s policy, taunts Peter Obi

Reno Omokri, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has explained the floating of the naira policy by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration.

President Bola Tinubu had earlier directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to scrap the multiple exchange rates that Nigeria operates.

On Wednesday, June 15, the apex bank instructed Nigerian banks to trade the dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) rate.

Taking to his Twitter page on Friday, Omokri disclosed that the multiple exchange rate is another subsidy in disguise that favoured only the business class.

Omokri claimed that last year, it was projected that the CBN spent $8 billion in defending the value of the naira artificially, adding that what is being spent on defending the naira against the dollar is more than what Nigeria spends on infrastructure in its yearly budget.

He added that such money leaves Nigeria's economy because it only benefits traders and foreign investors rather than manufacturers.

The former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan then maintained that such a system killed made-in-Nigeria products because it naturally makes imported goods cheaper than what is being produced locally.

He cited the closure of the Dangote Tomato paste factory in Kano State because the imported ones from Peter Obi, the presidential flagbearer of the Labour Party in the last general election, were cheaper, as a case study.

Omokri said: "It dissuaded local manufacturing of made-in-Nigeria goods and services because it almost guaranteed that imports would be cheaper. That is why Aliko Dangote had to close his tomato paste factory in Kano because Peter Obi could always import and sell cheaper, substandard tomato paste."