Iliyasu Gadu
Ilgad2009@gmail.com
08035355706 (Texts only)
In its latest assessment of the Nigerian economy under the President Tinubu administration, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) hailed the economic reforms that the administration had embarked upon over the last two years saying pointedly that they ‘’have improved macroeconomic stability and enhanced resilience’’.
On the flip side however, the IMF admitted that while ‘’growth had been steady, it had been too low in per-capita terms and inflation remains high’’. The report further stated that the reforms ‘’have yet to benefit all Nigerians. Food insecurity and poverty have risen’’.
What the IMF is saying here is that it is satisfied with those areas of the Tinubu economic reforms-subsidy removal, devaluation of the naira, tax and tariff increases-which forms the macro-economic policies of the government and which have been responsible for the unprecedented hardship in the country in the past two years. While praising the Tinubu government for implementing these punishing reforms on Nigerians however, it merely and opportunistically acknowledged that yes, the people are suffering as a result. But this is the necessary collateral damage that goes with implementation of the reforms which the IMF reckons Nigerians have to bear without question.
While the IMF in the report suggested to the Tinubu government on how to further press ‘’the boot’’ on the neck of Nigerians, it stopped short of giving the government recommendations on how to soften the hardship resulting from the harsh policies the government is implementing on its behalf.
In a way Nigerians should thank the IMF for revealing to us the failures of the aspect of the Tinubu economic reforms that affect us. Within the couple of years that the reforms have been in place nobody from President Tinubu down to his economic management team have owned up to the defects or proffered solutions or pathways to resolve the negative effects on the people of Nigeria.
Well, the IMF in its latest report has disclosed to Nigerians what the Tinubu administration has not had the courage to tell us about the negative effects of the Economic reforms. And the IMF is doing so in keeping with the mandatory audit compliance obligation which institutions like it are subject to. This is done to ensure process transparency and accountability expected of an institution like the IMF.
But in contrast to the IMF, our government has not seen the need to account to the Nigerian people on the economic reforms which it had foisted on them.
The deficit of accountability in the Tinubu reforms commenced right from inception when President Tinubu rolled out the macro-economic policies without a government in place and without consultation with critical stakeholders. In any reasonable country, this would have been rejected outrightly and the president asked to stop or review the policies.
But against all pleas and entreaties to consider the plight of majority of Nigerians who are pained by his policies, President Tinubu has studiously refused to heed. Two reasons can be attributed to this; the president obviously places more premium on seeking the validation of the IMF who he ranks above the Nigerian people who voted him into the office in the first place; the second reason is that implementing these reforms as he did offers him a gilt-edged opportunity to effect his long held desire for political and economic state capture.
At present we have a curious situation where the IMF which is not a Nigerian institution and hence not accountable to Nigerians sees the need to disclose to us the findings of its audit on the Nigerian economy, yet the very government which we voted for and is supposed to be beholden to us, does not see the need for such. It becomes even curiouser that the same government which scoffs at the demands of Nigerians to review the reforms saying brusquely that there is no alternative to its economic policies yet has within the past two years readily and unquestioningly bowed to the demands of the IMF to increase taxes and tariff as well as devalue the currency.
The Tinubu government has even decided to dispense with the pretense about the ‘’palliatives’’ it used to give out effectively absolving itself of the promise and constitutional responsibility it owes the people to infuse a human face to the reforms. Indeed, the government has become in time, disdainful and contemptuous of the Nigerian people’s justifiable demands for relief over the unreasonably harsh economic reforms of the Tinubu administration.
The question to ask then is between the IMF and the Nigerian people, who is the Tinubu government answerable to on matters that affect the well-being of the people?
It is time for the Nigerian people that voted the Tinubu government to power to demand that just as the government has been bowing to the instructions of the IMF in periodically tweaking the reforms, the it must also listen to their demands for a comprehensive review of the economic reforms in the interest of the people. Nigerians must demand as of constitutional right and through lawful civic actions that the government which we brought to power through our votes must listen to us per the economic reforms which is virtually strangulating us.
Nigerians should not accept the fallacy that there is no alternative to the current economic reforms for the simple and empirical reason that Economics being a social science exists and functions within a political and social construct. It is thus a flexible tool used by governments for constructing outcomes for the advancement of society. In this regard, governments around the world have used and tweaked various economic models depending on situations they find themselves to face and resolve existential economic challenges. The Tinubu must be challenged by Nigerians to also follow this path.
