Nigerians have been advised to blame former president, Muhammadu Buhari and former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, for the hardship ravaging the country.
Special Adviser to Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga said President Tinubu was not responsible for the current economic hardship Nigerians face. He said every policy of Tinubu was to reverse the economic policies of his predecessor that led the country to the present hardship.
Onanuga listed printing of N23 trillion, massive borrowing, defending on naira with borrowed dollars, fuel subsidy, inability of foreign airlines to access their profits, 5000 Bureau de Change operators, and NNPC’s non-remittance of necessary revenue, all in Buhari’s administration among other economic policies of the previous administration was responsible for the current inflation and hardship.
“To be sure, President Tinubu did not create the economic problems Nigeria faces today. He inherited them. As a respected economist in our country, once put it, Tinubu inherited a dead economy.
“The economy was bleeding and needed quick surgery to avoid being plunged into the abyss, as happened in Zimbabwe and Venezuela. This was the background to the policy direction taken by the government in May/June 2023: the abrogation of the fuel subsidy regime and the unification of the multiple exchange rates.
“For decades, Nigeria had maintained a fuel subsidy regime that gulped $84.39 billion between 2005 and 2022 from the public treasury in a country with huge infrastructural deficits and in high need of better social services for its citizens.
“The state oil firm, NNPC, the sole importer, had amassed trillions of naira in debts for absorbing the unsustainable subsidy payments in its books. By the time President Tinubu took over the leadership of the country, there was no provision made for fuel subsidy payments in the national budget beyond June 2023.
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“The budget itself had a striking feature: it planned to spend 97 percent of revenue servicing debt, with little left for recurrent or capital expenditure. The previous government had resorted to massive borrowing to cover such costs. Like oil, the exchange rate was also being subsidized by the government, with an estimated $1.5 billion spent monthly by the CBN to ‘defend’ the currency against the unquenchable demand for the dollar by the country’s import-dependent economy.
“By keeping the rate low, arbitrage grew as a gulf existed between the official rate and the rate being used by over 5000 BDCs that were previously licensed by the Central Bank. What was more, the country was failing to fulfil its remittance obligations to airlines and other foreign businesses, such that FDIs and investment in the oil sector dried up, and notably Emirate Airlines cut off the Nigerian route,” Bayo wrote in a statement.
He said the floating of Naira, removal of fuel subsidies, and electricity hikes were only necessary to save the economy.
He added that Tinubu’s economic policies returned the trust of world investors and financial institutions in Nigeria’s economy. “President Tinubu had to deal with the cancer of public finance on the first day by rolling back the subsidy regime and the generosity that spread to neighbouring countries. Then, his administration floated the naira,” he added.
The Special Adviser to Tinubu on Information and Strategy added that economic policies of the President have been yielding fruits. He listed the current Naira US Dollar rate in the exchange market from N1900 to $1, to the current N150 to $1 as gain.
Bayo said while the inflation figure comes down, the food inflation data on April showed the policy of Tinubu was addressing hunger crisis. “With all the plans being executed, inflation, especially food inflation, will soon be tamed,” he added.
