Senator Ben Murray-Bruce (PDP Bayelsa East) on Thursday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to adjust his approach to the anti-corruption crusade, saying policy was scaring investors.
Bruce, who disclosed this while
contributing to the Senate’s debate on the economic recession in the
country, said that Nigeria should not expect foreign investments as even
local investors had stopped investing.
He said that people who had money to
invest were no longer doing so because the anti-graft agencies were
harassing any person with cash transactions running into millions.
“Buhari’s approach to anti-corruption is wrong: let us forget the foreign investors, what about the local investors?If people are afraid, they will not invest; fear will not be a policy to grow the economy.Money is a coward; it only goes to places where there is peace and tranquility.I have a friend who paid legitimate N50 million into his account and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) came and picked him up.We cannot be afraid to be Nigerians; we cannot be afraid to live in our country,” he said.
Bruce recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo also fought corruption but that his anti-corruption fight was not one that put fear in the minds of real investors.
He said that he supported Buhari’s
anti-corruption fight but insisted that the approach should be changed
to encourage investments.
On the prices of food in the market, he said that poor Nigerians were feeling the brunt far more than the rich.
He said that the prices of bags of rice,
beans and garri had risen by over 50 per cent while the retail prices
of the same commodity rose by over 150 per cent.
The lawmaker said that while the rich
bought the commodities in bags, the poor, whose minimum wage had not
changed, had to buy at 150 percent increased rate.
He attributed the increase in retail
prices of items to the cost of transportation, and called for a
transport policy to check transportation costs.
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