NIGERIANS have endured a month of rising adversity as President Bola Tinubu unleashed a barrage of shock measures.
The naira crashed toover N800 to $1 midweek before settling to N775/$1 by weekend. Higher electricity tariffs are imminent; more multinational firms are heading for the exit door; inflation is reaching for the sky, and about 7.1 million more persons are forecast to plunge into extreme poverty. Beyond drastic decisions, Tinubu should adopt thorough planning, preparation, and fallback measures to avoid creating bigger problems than he set out to solve.
Adopting wholesale, the standard prescriptions of the Bretton Woods institutions without poverty-preventing guardrails is imprudent.
Hailed variously as “bold, courageous, and decisive,” by free-market economists, the World Bank/IMF, private sector operators and his supporters, Tinubu within three weeks in office, removed the petrol subsidy a month ahead of plan, floated the naira, proposed VAT on diesel oil, signed a student loans bill that coincided with higher fees in higher institutions, approved a new annual vehicle ownership fee, and endorsed a raise in telecommunications tax.
In all this, the well-being of Nigerians must be paramount. Policies, even necessary, long canvassed measures require planning against their repercussions. The World Bank that has for decades railed against the subsidy has now forecast the number of poor Nigerians to rise to 101 million soon on the back of the inflationary and poverty-inducing effects of its removal and the naira flotation.
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