Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has delivered a damning assessment of President Bola Tinubu’s first year in office, painting a picture of economic policies gone awry and dashed hopes for millions of Nigerians. In a statement released on the administration’s first anniversary, the opposition leader did not mince words in critiquing what he termed Tinubu’s “cocktail of trial-and-error economic policies.”
Atiku’s broadside comes as many Nigerians anxiously evaluate whether the new president has lived up to his lofty campaign promises of rapid economic revival, job creation, food security, and relief from rising costs of living. The former presidential candidate argues that one year on, not only have those pledges remained unfulfilled, but Nigeria’s economic stability has significantly worsened under Tinubu’s watch.
At the heart of Atiku’s critique is the charge that Tinubu embarked on a dizzying series of major policy shifts without a coherent overarching plan. He cites the hasty removal of the contentious petrol subsidy, the merger of multiple foreign exchange windows, monetary tightening, increased electricity tariffs, and new cybersecurity taxes as policies implemented in quick succession with little evident strategy.
The results, according to the PDP leader, have been predictably grim – soaring joblessness, entrenched poverty, economic fragility, and dashed hopes. Atiku portrays an administration taking a scattershot approach and failing to deliver on its economic promises to the people.
His statement highlights some startling data points – Nigeria has slipped from Africa’s largest economy to fourth position behind Algeria, Egypt and South Africa over the past year. For a nation that so desperately needs robust growth to improve living standards, that economic backslide represents a stinging rebuke.
Of course, Atiku was Tinubu’s main opposition in the 2023 presidential election, so his criticisms could easily be dismissed as partisan sniping. However, his litany of complaints does find some objective backing in economic data and widespread public sentiments of frustration over persistent hardships.
Whether one considers Atiku critique to be fair or overly harsh, it has undoubtedly thrown down the gauntlet to the Tinubu administration to urgently course-correct if it hopes to steady the economic ship. The former VP’s withering assessment suggests the honeymoon period is over, and that the new president must expeditiously deliver the “renewed hopes” he promised.
For millions of Nigerians grappling with economic hardship and insecurity, Atiku’s statement captures their growing impatience and validates their skepticism that the government is yet to chart an effective way forward after one year. The pressure is now squarely on Tinubu to prove his vocal critics wrong.
Reference
Tinubu govt at one: Nigeria not working – Atiku published in Daily Post.