Tinubu’s two years in office: Citizens’ scorecard: Things are really bad, but…

Meanwhile, Nigerians, who spoke to BH on the performance of the APC administration in the last two years were sharply divided.

While many argued that the Tinubu administration had failed Nigerians by taking the country backward, others defended the government, saying there would have been no economy to talk about today had the president failed to implement the necessary reforms needed to restart it.

A Lagos businessman, Goodluck Benigbo, said President Tinubu’s two years in office had been two years of disaster.

“It is two years of suffering for Nigerians. When he was coming on board on the first day of his inauguration, he said fuel subsidy was gone. That if the sector was liberalized, prices of petroleum products will fall after the initial spike.

“But the reverse is the case. From less then N200 in May 2023, fuel price is almost N1,000 today. It has refused to come down.

“Nigerians are hungry and the government is not doing anything about it. That is why I said the two years of Tinubu is two years of disaster. There is nothing to show for it.

“The situation is hopeless going forward. I said this because  opposition parties that are supposed to stand up to the government, their leaders are daily defecting to the APC.

“So, I don’t have hope of things changing soon for the better as promised by the government”, Benigbo said.

A motor spare part dealer at the Jankara Market in the Ijaiye-Ojokoro area of Lagos, Paul Okoro, scored the president and his team low on the economy and insecurity.

According to him, Nigerians are worse off from where they were in 2023 when Tinubu assumed office.

“Tell me, what he has achieved? We were shouting that foodstuffs were expensive when we were buying a bag of rice for about N35,000 during Buhari’s time. But today, the price has more than doubled.

“A car that sold for N4 million or N5 million in 2023 now goes for about N13 million to N15 million. So, they should please tell us how they have made positive changes.

“Even insecurity is coming back. While security in the South East where I come from seems to have improved, terrorists and bandits are coming back to torment the North, especially North East and North Central.

“I never have hope in this government from the beginning, so it didn’t come as a shock to me that they have failed to live up to their promises”, Okoro said.

Also accessing the government, a public servant in the Federal Ministry of Health, who begged that his identity be protected, said two years is too short to access the government.

“I still have hope in the government. Because there is a saying that ‘when there is life, there is hope’. I believe things will improve. People should go and look at history to understand what I am saying.

“We have been in dire situations in the past when all hope seemed to be lost. Yet, we always overcome our challenges. You can see that the situation is not as bad as it was in May last year. We are now experiencing some relief as  prices of commodities are coming down.

“We should give the government more time to rebuild the country. At the end of his (President Tinubu) first term in office, we can then start judging him,” the public health official admonished.

In her own contribution, a Lagos banker, Florence Ayoade, said while things are currently tough for Nigerians, she fully believes in the policies and programmes of the present administration.

According to Ayoade, most Nigerians are of the impression that Tinubu’s administration has failed because they didn’t have an idea of the very bad economy he inherited.

“I am an accountant, so I know better. The president inherited a hopeless economy from his predecessor, as well as past presidents, who mismanaged it.

“If you remember, many states couldn’t pay salaries of their workers when Buhari came into power in 2015. That was about 10 years ago. It took the intervention of the former president, who gave them bailout to save the day.

“If I am right, I think it’s only Lagos that didn’t collect the loan. As bookkeepers, some of us  saw it (economic crisis) coming. Oil production was falling fast and no concrete growth in the real sector. All we had were artificial growth.

“While the real sector was dying and government was getting stuck in debts because revenues were shrinking, banks were busy declaring huge profits. And Nigerians were busy clapping and not asking where the huge profits were coming from.

“But some of us knew. We saw the crash coming and we cried out but we were ignored. The country was borrowing heavily to pay workers wages and  subsidies on fuel and foreign exchange. But successive administrations carried on as if all was well.

“What we are witnessing today is a culmination of past neglect by our leaders. Pretending we won’t come to this is the nation living in denial. Where will the money come from when we were already spending over 90% of our revenue on debt servicing?

“The only problem I have with the president is that he tried to implement all these policies at once. I personally believe he should have staggered it to avoid the massive shocks the economy is presently going through.

“But he is the one who knows where the shoe is pinching. We are only looking in from the outside, but the administration has the true and whole picture of how bad things were back in 2023. I could have done the same thing if I were in their shoes”, Ayoade explained.

“Benefits of our reforms will soon begin to manifest,”- Finance Minister

In its reaction to Nigerians verdict on the effects of its policies on the masses, the Federal Government admonished Nigerians not to be hasty in passing judgement on the administration.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, who spoke to BH through the ministry’s Director of Information and Public Relations, Mohammed Manga, said the initial pains this administration’s economic reforms had inflicted on Nigerians will soon be a thing of the past, assuring that the benefits of the reforms would soon begin to manifest.

According to Edun, the president is fully aware of the initial pains of the economic reforms being implemented.

“Mr President is aware that his necessary reforms will come with some transition pains.  Before the medicine takes effect, there is some bitterness.

“In recognizing that, he has shown commitment to making sure he doesn’t leave the poor, vulnerable, weak in the society behind.

“That is why there are take-off intervention programmes alongside the reform programmes.

“I must say his reforms are a whole package on the fiscal and monetary sides, that is stabilizing the economy, the exchange rate, and providing the platform for the economy to grow again,” he said.

Edun added that the president intervened in the agriculture sector by providing grains and fertilizer to farmers ahead of the dry season farming.

He also said that the Federal Government ensured the cultivation of an extra 200,000 hectares of farmland for rice, wheat, cassava, and maize.

The minister said the president also recently released 42,000 metric tons of grains, 60,000 metric tons of rice into the market, explaining that the measures were to alleviate food insecurity.

While saying there is now improved liquidity of foreign exchange in the market, Edun assured that the government would attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and bring people out of poverty.

He concluded by saying that President Tinubu should be judged by his ability to grow the nation’s economy, create employment and reduce poverty.

“At the end of the day, Mr. President will be judged on his ability to grow the economy, create employment, and reduce poverty.

“Within that context, he is going to be judged on inflation, stabilising the economy, increasing investment, government revenue, and managing government’s expenditure”.