President Bola Tinubu’s government has admitted that Nigerians are suffering difficult times and their purchasing power has been badly weakened due to its policies.

A media aide for  Mr Tinubu, Dada Olusegun, in an article on Thursday, said Mr Tinubu’s economic policies, fuel subsidy removal and floating of the naira, triggered economic hardship characterised by spiking food prices in the country.

“It is undeniable that Nigerians are currently passing through difficult times characterised by high prices of food and other consumer goods. The increase in general consumer prices has not been anywhere near commensurate with the rise in the income levels of an average Nigerian. This weakened the purchasing power of a lot of our people,” Mr Olusegun said.

He added “The trigger for these, of course, is the very necessary decisions taken by the Tinubu administration at the onset to tackle the fuel subsidy conundrum as well as bold monetary reforms to reconfigure our foreign exchange market as well as the value and stability of the naira.”

According to Mr Olusegun, these measures were necessary steps that we had to take to guarantee the continued survival of our economy. It is instructive that a lot of economic experts and even the major 2023 presidential candidates accepted that these tough decisions must be taken urgently.

Mr Olusegun’s admittance validates public outrage against Mr Tinubu’s government as Nigerians plan nationwide protests over economic hardship caused by Mr Tinubu’s economic policies.

In an editorial piece on July 17, Financial Times said Mr Tinubu’s “disjointed” economic policies have pushed “tens of millions” into misery and would not end Nigerians’ hardships. 

“In the nearly 15 months since Bola Tinubu became pres­id­ent, he has forced his 220mn fel­low Nigeri­ans to swal­low some bit­ter medi­cine. He removed a gen­er­ous fuel sub­sidy, one of the few bene­fits cit­izens receive from their inef­fi­cient and cor­rupt state. 

“He allowed the coun­try’s cur­rency, the naira, to enter freefall, fuel­ling impor­ted infla­tion and trig­ger­ing the worst cost of liv­ing crisis in a gen­er­a­tion. These meas­ures have pushed tens of mil­lions of already impov­er­ished people deeper into misery,” Financial Times said.

The criticism from the Financial Times echoes earlier assessments from international media outlets. 

In June, the New York Times reported that Nigeria is enduring its worst economic crisis in decades under Mr Tinubu’s leadership, characterised by spiking inflation, a declining national currency, and widespread food insecurity.