President Bola Tinubu has defended his administration’s sweeping economic reforms, saying that Nigerian would have required wheelbarrows to transport nearly worthless naira notes if his government had not acted decisively upon taking office in 2023.
Speaking at a reception in his honour at the ARISE Palm Resort in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, President Tinubu described the removal of fuel subsidies and the unification of the naira exchange rate as painful but necessary measures that pulled the country back from the edge of fiscal collapse.
“By now, if we didn’t take a decision the day I took over, we will use wheelbarrows to move our naira because it would have been valueless,” Tinubu said.
He added that the currency’s current level – about 1,300 naira to the dollar, still represented “pocketable value,” whereas inaction would have left Nigerians carrying cash by wheelbarrow to buy tomatoes.
The remarks came as the administration seeks to build public support for reforms that have sharply raised living costs.
President Tinubu acknowledged the burden, saying, “I don’t know the pain of the market, but I share your pain, I share your difficulty.”
The President said 27 of Nigeria’s 36 governors were unable to meet salary obligations when he assumed office, with pensions and gratuities even further behind.
He said the country had since emerged from a “dark tunnel” of uncertainty and potential bankruptcy.
President Tinubu ruled out a return to fuel subsidies, invoking the biblical story of Moses and the Israelites to argue that Nigeria could not retreat to an unsustainable economic past.
“We won’t go back to Egypt, we must go forward,” he said.
The President also said money recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission would be directed into the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, or NELFUND, as part of an effort to expand access to education and relieve families of tuition costs.
“From today on, as we are fighting corruption, any money recovered from EFCC is dumped into that education programme, NELFUND. No one can reverse it,” he said.
Tinubu paired his economic defense with pointed criticism of opposition figures.
He mocked former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi over erosion in his home state, contrasting it with the reclamation of 73 hectares of gully-eroded land for the ARISE Palm Resort, which includes an artificial lake and golf course.
He also criticized former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, saying the politician had abandoned the Peoples Democratic Party after facing a challenge to his leadership and moved toward another platform in pursuit of the presidency.
“Will you give such a person who has no leadership quality, no sense of responsibility, no sense of cohesion that can do good to this country the Presidency?” Tinubu asked.
With Nigeria’s presidential election scheduled for January 16, 2027, Tinubu urged voters to back continuity, framing his reforms as the foundation for future stability and development.
He also pledged to deliver the proposed Ibom Deep Seaport, telling Akwa Ibom residents: “Keep your promise, I will keep mine.”
