Economic Hardship: Catholic Bishops Disapprove of Tinubu's Economic Changes

Millions are becoming beggars as a result of Tinubu's reform agenda, according to Catholic bishops.

According to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's reform agenda has not only caused more suffering for Nigerians, but it has also forced millions of them to resort to begging as a means of subsistence.

Nigerians are going through the worst hardship in the country's history, according to the President of the CBCN, Most Rev. Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, who made this statement in his welcome speech on Sunday at the opening session of the 2024 First Plenary Assembly of the CBCN in Abuja.

The Bishop regretted that high-spiralling inflation has made it difficult for the average Nigerian to access basic commodities, including food and medication. He noted that the end of the fuel subsidy regime and the unification of the foreign exchange market brought about a significant increase in the pump price of petroleum products and a steep decline in the value of the naira.

Read: Economic Hardship: Prices Of Food Items And Groceries Rises Drastically

He declared: “The reform agenda of the present government has added to the plight of Nigerians. With the withdrawal of fuel subsidies and the unification of the foreign exchange market, there has been a sharp increase in the pump price of petroleum products and a steep decline in the value of the naira. Indeed, there is a free fall in the national currency.

“As a result of the government's reform agenda, millions of Nigerians have been reduced to a life of grinding poverty, wanton suffering, and untold hardship as never before in our national history.

“In a bid to survive, an increasing number of the poor have resorted to begging. With more than 80 million Nigerians living below the poverty line of less than two dollars a day, our country, according to the recent disclosure of the World Bank, is the world's second-largest poor population after India.

“While many impoverished Nigerians continue to suffer and die as a result of the hardship caused by the government's economic reforms, the president has continued to urge the populace to make even more and more sacrifices with the assurance that brighter days lay ahead.”

However Ugorji said that Nigerians expected to see a sharp reduction in the expense of running government at all levels, just as the government was expecting more sacrifice from the suffering people.