Tinubu’s Reforms: Nigeria won’t get better for everybody at the same time  —  Tope Fasua

By Bayo Wahab

Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs, Tope Fasua, has said that Nigeria’s economic recovery will not benefit everyone simultaneously, but current indices suggest that President Bola Tinubu’s reforms are beginning to yield results.

Fasua, who in an interview with Trust TV on Thursday, cautioned against negative rhetoric about the economy, stressing that transformation is a gradual process that cannot happen overnight.

“What’s really at stake now is that many people who control the narrative — especially the media — seem not to be trying to imagine whether Nigeria could actually get better. And when Nigeria is going to get better, it’s not going to get better for everybody at the same time. And sometimes you may just not notice that it has got better,” he said.

Fasua argued that recent economic data indicate Tinubu’s administration is making progress. 

“Many indices are pointing to it looks like this Tinubu man is getting it right,” he stated. 

“If inflation is dropping month on month for five months, if foreign reserves are growing and now we’re talking about $42 billion, if trade surpluses are growing — this year, half year alone, we’ve done N12 trillion. The whole of last year we did N16 trillion in trade surpluses. In half the year we’ve done N12 trillion. We probably will do N20 trillion or N25 trillion this year. If all of these things are looking up, so why complain?”

The presidential aide also noted improvements in energy and food prices.

According to him, the reduction in the price of petroleum products by Dangote Refinery was already easing cost pressures on Nigerians, despite criticisms from some quarters.

“Even the petroleum prices that went up are coming down, Dangote is bringing it down. And we’ve seen instances where prices of foods are coming down, and another interest group comes to say the government is crashing the price of food to hurt them, not knowing that if we actually have 230 million Nigerians, if the cost of food comes down, it benefits 230 million people, including those who are complaining,” Fasua explained.

He accused vested interests of prioritising profits from exports over domestic needs, noting that such practices undermine the welfare of ordinary Nigerians. 

“Every farmer at that level, including the people who back them up, including the so-called aggregators, they want to export everything, no matter what happens to Nigerians. And in exporting everything they export and now they start to chase them — where is the export proceeds? Maybe you get 20% of the export proceeds back, the rest of the money goes abroad,” he said.

On Nigeria’s current economic hardship, Fasua urged patience, insisting that challenges were rooted in both colonial history and present realities.

“The poverty and inequality in the land has historical background… For us to catch up to the level where people want us to be now, it’s going to be a process,” he noted.

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