Segun Sowunmi, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has criticised President Bola Tinubu for appointing 48 ministers to his cabinet, saying it is a waste of public funds.

“Should the government be that large at a time when a lean cabinet seems more needful given the financial state of the country?” he queried. “Can a nation be in dire straits and those who created the financial and governance mess be shoving it in our face as though we have become a captured nation with no way out of the slavery of helplessness?”

At a news conference in Abuja, Mr Showunmi said Nigeria faced more pressing issues than creating more ministries and ministers.

“The big issues before the nation in no particular order are accountability and justice, stabilising the naira, security, national cohesion, the economy (jobs) and national reorientation, to mention but a few,” Mr Sowunmi said.

He advised the government to strive hard to end the hardship faced by Nigerians following the removal of subsidies on petrol.

Mr Showunmi also faulted the modalities for the distribution of fuel subsidy palliatives in the states, saying that the N5 billion palliatives being challenged through the state governors might not achieve the desired objective.

He also tasked the government to take urgent steps to stop further depreciation in the naira value, saying all the measures introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria had not yielded results.

(NAN)