The Presidency has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu has not spent three years in office but has a lot to show for his stewardship.
Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this while reacting to a report by The Economist on Tinubu’s achievements.
Posting on X, Onanuga wrote: “President Tinubu has not spent three years yet and he has a lot to show for his stewardship. The Economist of January 29 captured the achievement in the following words:
“It is difficult to overstate the mess Mr Tinubu inherited. When he took office in 2023, the country’s central bank had $7bn (equivalent to 1.4% of gdp at the time) in obligations it could not meet, prompting international investors to flee en masse.
“The bank’s credibility had been dented by a recklessly loose monetary policy, its mismanagement of dwindling foreign-exchange reserves and efforts to maintain an unsustainable tiered exchange-rate system. In 2022 alone the cash-strapped government spent some $10bn, equivalent to 2.2% of gdp, on a ruinous fuel subsidy.
“To fix things, Mr Tinubu’s government got on with a package of drastic structural reforms. It abolished the fuel subsidy and abandoned that multi-tiered system of dollar-pegged exchange rates, largely allowing the naira to float.
“The central bank aggressively tightened monetary policy to curb the resulting bout of inflation. The government also moved to improve security in the Niger Delta and offered a range of tax incentives to investors to boost dwindling oil production.
“Nearly three years on, Nigeria’s 230m people, especially the poor and the middle class, are still reeling from increases in fuel and food prices. Poverty has risen. But it looks as though Mr Tinubu’s bitter medicine is helping. The annual inflation rate, which hit a nearly 30-year high of 34.8% in December 2024, fell to 15.2% in December 2025.
“Growth is returning. The IMF expects the economy to expand by 4.4% in 2026. Following two steep devaluations in 2023, the naira has stabilised (see chart). The central bank’s foreign-exchange reserves have risen to $46bn, their highest level in seven years.
“Improvements in macroeconomic stability are restoring investor confidence. On January 22nd Shell, a British company, said it hopes in 2027 to finalise plans, with partners, to develop a $20bn offshore oilfield that has been sitting untapped for over 20 years. Exxon Mobil, an American firm, has committed $1.5bn to deepwater development until 2027.
“Local business leaders are more upbeat, too. Oil-and-gas production is rising, much of it driven by local firms plugging leaks and improving output in onshore projects in the Niger Delta, which has become safer thanks to Mr Tinubu’s focus on security there.
“All this should give the government some fiscal breathing room, particularly as the cheaper naira begins to raise the competitiveness of Nigeria’s non-oil exports such as cocoa and cashew nuts.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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