By Eshioromeh Sebastian
President Bola Tinubu has responded to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s recent criticisms of his administration’s economic policies, countering with what his office described as seven key facts the opposition leader got wrong about Nigeria’s reform journey.
In a statehouse press statement titled “Facts, Not Fear: A Point-by-Point Response to Atiku Abubakar on Nigeria’s Reform Journey,” the administration dismissed the former vice president’s claims of fiscal recklessness, arguing that his criticisms are anchored in outdated data from the 2024 fiscal year and fail to account for the significant economic recovery achieved since then.
Atiku, in his recent remarks, had accused the Tinubu administration of fiscal recklessness, citing excessive borrowing in the 2024 budget, questioning the removal of the fuel subsidy, criticising the government’s tax reforms, concocting an oil windfall of N7.98 trillion, and suggesting that Nigeria is drifting economically.
He had argued that the administration’s policies were causing undue hardship on Nigerians without delivering commensurate benefits.
The President Tinubu through his spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, argued that judging a reform programme solely by its earliest and most difficult phase is “like judging chemotherapy by the nausea it induces while ignoring the remission it seeks to achieve.”
It stated that Nigeria’s dollar-denominated GDP has recovered significantly from a post-adjustment trough of about $253 billion to approximately $377 billion, representing a roughly 49 per cent increase.
According to the statement, Naira GDP has expanded from about ₦314 trillion in 2024 to around ₦530 trillion, a 69 per cent increase reflecting “both higher economic activity and price changes.”
On the issue of borrowing, the administration noted that Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio remains “relatively modest at barely 40 per cent,” especially when compared to peer economies and advanced countries such as South Africa at 85 per cent, the United States at 130 per cent and the United Kingdom at 110 per cent.
The administration also pointed to a significant achievement in reducing the debt service-to-revenue ratio “from a high of nearly 100 per cent in December 2022 to less than 60 per cent today.”
It argued that “the more meaningful question is whether borrowing finances investments that expand productive capacity and future revenues, rather than merely postponing difficult choices.”
The administration defended the removal of the fuel subsidy, stating that an idea mooted in the early 1970s “had become toxic and a drainpipe on the economy.” It argued that the visible consequence of subsidy removal has been “the sharp improvement in revenues accruing to states and local governments through the Federation Account,” enabling many to increase spending on roads, schools, hospitals and social programmes.
The administration further contended that the government in which the former vice president served “waded through that toxic phenomenon, and never did the needful.”
The administration rejected Atiku’s claim that it chose to tax Nigerians more, describing it as “blatantly false” and “an attempt to deceive and dissemble.”
According to the statement, the objective of the tax reforms is “to create a broader, more equitable tax system” by reducing the burden on low-income earners earning N1 million per annum and below and small businesses with turnover of N100 million and below, while strengthening compliance among higher-income individuals and profitable enterprises.
“The underlying principle is that those with greater capacity should bear a larger share of the tax burden, while micro-enterprises and vulnerable households receive greater protection,” the statement read.
On health, the administration said over 100 facilities across Nigeria provide “free caesarean operations for indigent mothers” and that “three world-class cancer centres are operational in Kubwa, Enugu and Katsina,” with 13 other state cancer centres expanded.
It also stated that “over 3,000 Primary Healthcare Centres have been revitalised, upgraded, and refurbished” and “over 78,000 frontline workers have been retrained in three years.”
The Presidency highlighted the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which it says has enabled “over 1.64 million students” to access loans for tuition and upkeep, with over N303 billion disbursed through 300 higher institutions.
The statement described this as “another unprecedented initiative touching lives positively.” It also noted that President Tinubu has overseen an end to strikes by university lecturers, ensuring that “a four-year programme does not go beyond four years, a great relief to students and parents.”
The administration flatly denied Atiku’s claim of an N7.98 trillion oil windfall, arguing that “such analyses ignore the cost of production, the share of crude belonging to the oil-producing companies and the impact of crude sale contracts such as forward contracts designed to hedge against price volatility.”
While the average price for Brent in the first half of 2026 was around $90 compared to a $64.85 benchmark, the administration noted that average daily production fell short at about 1.6 million barrels per day compared to the forecast of 1.84 million barrels per day.
“The production shortfall partly offset the price premium,” the statement said, adding that “some crude volume had been pledged for loans used to pay for the wasteful subsidy in the past.”
The statement acknowledged that “the reforms have carried undeniable costs, and legitimate questions remain about implementation, inflation, and social protection.”
However, it insisted that “describing the entire programme as financial recklessness overlooks the broader context of structural change, fiscal rebalancing, and efforts to improve macroeconomic stability.”
The administration cited projections that inflation, which fell to 14.4 per cent in November 2025 before rising to 15.91 per cent due to the Middle East war, “has begun another descent” and is projected to trend towards 12 per cent by the end of the year.
The administration also announced the launch of ward-centric programmes including NG-CARES, HOPE and SOLID worth more than $3 billion to “strengthen primary healthcare, basic education, and support for vulnerable communities.” This is in addition to cash transfers to 15 million vulnerable households aimed at “lifting them out of extreme poverty.”
The Presidency concluded by stating that “history rarely remembers governments for the popularity of their decisions in the moment” but for “whether those decisions ultimately strengthened or weakened the nation.”
It challenged the former vice president to “show the workings for his N7.98 trillion oil windfall” and urged Nigerians to move beyond what it described as “pedestrianism” in national discourse.
“Nigeria’s economy is not yet where it aspires to be. But neither is it where it stood at the height of its structural distortions or in the bygone years of fiscal waste and slackness,” the statement read.
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