Nigeria Still Struggling One Year Under Tinubu — Atiku

A year later, Tinubu-led Nigeria is not functioning says Atiku

Bola Tinubu took office one year ago, but his promise to restructure the country's economy to promote growth and development by addressing extreme poverty, joblessness, and food security has not materialized.

This is according to former vice president Atiku Abubakar, who also noted in a statement on Tuesday to commemorate the occasion, that the administration has persisted in implementing a variety of experimental economic measures.

Following his “eight years of economic misadventure,” Tinubu noted that Nigerians were relieved. He announced that the CBN had implemented a new foreign exchange policy, fuel subsidies had been eliminated, and other policies had been swiftly implemented.

However, the Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP) candidate for president in the 2023 election stated: "Predictably, 12 months on, Tinubu's pledge of growing the economy and ending misery remains unfulfilled.

“His actions or inactions have significantly worsened Nigeria's macroeconomic stability. Nigeria remains a struggling economy and is more fragile today than it was a year ago.

“Indeed, all the economic ills joblessness, poverty, and misery - which defined the Buhari-led administration have only been exacerbated.”

Atiku stated Tinubu had crushed Nigerians' dreams, pointing out that the continent's largest economy had fallen to the fourth rank, trailing behind Algeria, Egypt, and South Africa.

“Citizens' hopes have been dashed (and not renewed contrary to the propaganda of the administration) as Nigeria's economic woes have multiplied,” he stated.

“Unleashing reforms without sequencing; without ideas on how to implement them; and without any regards to their potential and real devastating consequences,” he charged the administration of doing. Adopting policies without sufficient preparation or a defined end goal is just trial-and-error economics.

The former vice president claimed that the administration's policies do not bring prosperity, highlighting four areas to highlight the hazards associated with them.

Atiku accused the president of having the “courage” to end PMS's subsidy and “impose additional taxes on his people,” but lacked the “compassion to raise the minimum wage or implement a social investment program that would reduce the levels of vulnerability, and deprivation of workers and their families,” citing other dire economic indicators.

He said that over 20,000 jobs had been lost as a result of multinationals leaving the country and that Tinubu's policies have created a hostile climate for businesses.

In addition to other negative effects, the former presidential candidate noted that President Tinubu's foreign currency policies had no positive effect on Nigeria's foreign trade balance.

He went on to say that despite all the efforts, Tinubu's policies have not succeeded in luring foreign investors into the nation: “Finally, despite deploying various monetary policy tools, inflationary pressure persists, and so does exchange rate volatility. No thanks to Tinubu's misguided policy, the Naira's value plummeted against the dollar and has since become the worst-performing currency in the world.

“It is clear from the foregoing that President Tinubu has an exaggerated understanding of the efficacy of his policies and was not ready for the potential fallouts. Tinubu and his team are not exactly sure of where the reform process is and what the next steps are. Has Nigeria reinstated fuel subsidy?

“Is the Naira on a free or managed float? These trial-and-error policies raise questions about the readiness of the administration and its capacity to restore the economy to a path of sustainable growth.

“Time is running out for the government, and Tinubu must act fast to save the economy.”