A former Cross River State Governor Clement Ebri has expressed support for President Muhammadu Buhari to get emergency powers from the National Assembly to deal with the economy.
Ebri, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), told reporters in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, that granting emergency powers to the President to deal with the downturn would ensure that necessary measures are applied to accelerate the economic recovery.
Naming specific areas that would be swiftly addressed with the introduction of emergency powers for the President, Ebri said the emergency powers would enable the President to create more jobs as contracts for infrastructural projects would be faster than they would have been, especially in the Construction sector.
The former governor said such powers would facilitate exports by addressing the delays associated with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), which has been accused, even by the Nigeria Export Promotions Council (NEPC), of frustrating exporters from bring foreign exchange into the country.
He said: “What the President is saying is that we should not do things the old way again. Even the vehicle you drive, when you get to a bad spot, don’t you change to auxiliary gear and move on? He is saying, ‘Let us look at areas where we can do a few things differently in the process of recovering back our economy.’”
Ebri said Argentina and other countries at different times adopted emergency economic measures to overcome their economic challenges.
According to him, anybody who opposes the President’s emergency economic powers does not wish the country well.
Ebri said: “Anybody who does not like the emergency powers sought by the President to fix the economy is an enemy of progress. The President is not going to do anything unilaterally.