The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, in a midterm assessment, has declared that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has “failed Nigerians woefully.”
In a joint statement released on Sunday by Afenifere’s Leader, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, and its National Publicity Secretary, Justice Faloye, the group painted a grim picture of national regression on all fronts under Tinubu’s two-year-old administration.
According to Afenifere, “The Midterm Report shows that every human development and sociopolitical index has regressed since the coming to office of the President Bola Tinubu administration, turning the promise of renewed hope to a nightmare of regressing hopelessness and despair.”
They accused the presidency of dodging accountability, hiding behind external factors, and investing heavily in what they described as a “massive propaganda campaign” to fabricate successes.
“Rather than take full responsibility for the unmitigated sufferings inflicted on Nigerians in the past two years on account of its wrong policy choices and wasteful spending, the Tinubu administration has engaged in massive propaganda claiming false successes and shifting blames to global and historical factors, and showing scant empathy for ordinary Nigerians,” the statement said.
Afenifere described Tinubu’s economic agenda as “unforced errors,” citing the sudden removal of fuel subsidies and floating of the naira without adequate safeguards.
“Basically, due to unforced errors, especially the oversight of the production element of subsidies and floating the Naira, without any preparation to cushion the predictable impact, the Tinubu Economic Reforms has turned out to be Tinubu Economic Deforms,” the group noted.
The group lambasted the administration’s “elitist” governance model, arguing that the majority of Nigerians have been “sacrificed for the benefit of a few connected elites.”
Meanwhile, the Presidency says that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic reforms are modeled directly on international capitalist standards.
At a media parley held in Lagos on Sunday, the presidency openly declared that the Tinubu administration is deliberately aligning the country’s economy with global market doctrines.
The economic policies from subsidy removal to currency devaluation were described as necessary to match the principles of “how economies function around the world.”
Speaking on Sunday in Lagos, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, and Sunday Dare, Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, noted that the administration’s actions are part of a conscious shift toward a market-driven economy aligned with international capitalist practices.
Onanuga noted: “This is how economies function around the world. We’re just aligning with global standards.”
He further insisted that what Nigerians are experiencing is not an economic collapse but a “paradigm shift.”
According to him: “There is a paradigm shift happening. We are moving to a market-driven economy. If you produce water and people stop drinking water, you innovate. That’s how markets work.”
The defense of the naira devaluation and subsidy removal was explained as a globalist move. The Presidency described the policies as part of the “willing buyer, willing seller” framework common in foreign exchange markets worldwide.
Onanuga said the pain felt by Nigerians is the unintended cost of progress.
He said, “Everything is not all bad for the economy. Some Nigerians are actually doing well. People are taking advantage of the devalued currency to export agricultural products like cocoa, sorghum, and even Zobo (hibiscus). These exporters are making significant gains.”
“One man left his bank job to engage in agro-export. He’s doing very well. Another group is exporting Zobo and making money. These are the hidden success stories,” Onanuga added.
He also said that Tinubu’s reforms are benefiting states through increased federal allocations.
“Sub-national governments are receiving more allocation than before, and many governors have confirmed this,” Onanuga said.
On the issue of rising and unstable fuel prices, Onanuga insisted the government had taken the right path.
“Prices are becoming competitive. Importers and marketers are adjusting. This is what happens when the market is allowed to play its role,” he stated.
As Onanuga added, “We are not in a crisis. The economy is in transition.”
