The National Chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) and former presidential candidate, Yabagi Sani, has described President Bola Tinubu's economic reforms as "bold and fundamental" but criticized them for lacking the necessary framework to alleviate the suffering of ordinary Nigerians.
Speaking on Wednesday during a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM in Ilese-Ijebu, Sani assessed the administration's performance at its two-year mark, describing it as a "mixed bag" with reforms that may yield results in the long term but are currently causing hardship.
"What Bola Ahmed Tinubu is trying to do is run a highly geared capitalist economy in an environment that is substantially weak and poor. That's the real problem," Sani stated.
Disconnect Between Policy and Implementation
The ADP chairman acknowledged that policies such as fuel subsidy removal and currency unification are theoretically sound but questioned their implementation and impact on the masses. He pointed out a significant gap between policy pronouncements and actual execution.
"Governments are always loud in policy declarations, but the problem lies in implementation. I haven't seen anything that convinces me this administration will end up in the good books of Nigerians, economically speaking," he remarked.
Rising Poverty Levels
Sani highlighted concerning statistics about poverty in Nigeria, claiming that the number of Nigerians living below the poverty line has increased from 103 million when Tinubu took office to approximately 129 million today.
"That means nearly 25 to 30 million additional people have slipped into poverty largely due to the removal of fuel subsidies," he explained.
The former presidential candidate warned that unless the government aligns its reform agenda with the actual needs of the people, it risks losing public trust regardless of how ambitious its policies appear.
Sani, who was the ADP's flagbearer in both the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections, emphasized that Tinubu's economic vision appears disconnected from Nigeria's socio-economic realities, benefiting a select group of elites while neglecting the wider population.
