By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The Presidency has fired back at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his recent criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, insisting that such criticisms must be based on facts rather than “frozen snapshots of history.”
The rebuttal, titled “Nigeria’s Reform Journey,” was issued in response to Atiku’s recent claims accusing the Tinubu administration of fiscal recklessness, including allegations of excess borrowing in the 2024 budget, questioning of the fuel subsidy removal, criticism of tax reforms, claims of a N7.98 trillion oil windfall, and suggestions that Nigeria was drifting economically.
The Presidency argued that while criticisms should not be silenced, Nigerians deserved a fuller picture of the country’s current economic standing, insisting that Atiku’s concerns, though raised, were largely misplaced.
“When yesterday’s data are presented as today’s reality, the public deserves context,” the statement read.
Addressing what it described as a chronological flaw in the opposition’s argument, the Presidency noted that it was curious that in the middle of 2026, the opposition’s principal economic argument remained anchored to developments in the 2024 fiscal year, stressing that economies were dynamic and reforms were processes rather than events.
“Judging a reform programme solely by its earliest and most painful phase is like judging chemotherapy by the nausea it induces while ignoring the remission it seeks to achieve,” the statement added.
The Presidency maintained that the Nigerian economy which underwent painful adjustment in 2024 had evolved considerably since then.
It explained that following the exchange-rate reset, Nigeria’s dollar-denominated GDP fell to about $253 billion, reflecting the immediate effect of currency realignment, but had since recovered significantly to approximately $377 billion, representing an increase of roughly 49 per cent from the post-adjustment trough, citing figures from statistics bodies and multilateral agencies including the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It further disclosed that Naira GDP had expanded from about ₦314 trillion in 2024 to around ₦530 trillion, representing a 69 per cent increase, which it said reflected both higher economic activity and price changes, even as it noted that the figures should continue to be assessed alongside real GDP growth, inflation and household welfare.
The Presidency insisted that the reforms were never advertised as painless but were presented as necessary structural adjustments intended to correct long-standing distortions, including those it attributed to the Obasanjo-Atiku years between 1999 and 2007.
On the matter of Nigeria’s debt profile, the Presidency argued that debt, in itself, was not the defining measure of fiscal health, stressing that what mattered were the size of the economy, revenue-generating capacity, debt servicing costs, the purposes for which funds were borrowed, and whether borrowed resources financed productive investments or recurrent consumption. It maintained that Nigeria’s debts had been acquired for productive, long-term infrastructural and investment purposes, in line with the law.
It stated that Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio remained relatively modest at barely 40 per cent, compared with peer and advanced economies such as South Africa (85 per cent), Egypt (80 per cent), Ghana (60 per cent), Kenya (75 per cent), the United States (130 per cent), the United Kingdom (110 per cent), and China, unofficially put at 300 per cent.
The Presidency further disclosed that the debt service-to-revenue ratio had declined from a high of nearly 100 per cent in December 2022 to less than 60 per cent currently under the Tinubu administration, describing the development as a remarkable achievement that showed improved revenue efficiency and conservative, astute debt management.
It maintained, however, that the more meaningful question remained whether borrowing financed investments that expanded productive capacity and future revenues, rather than merely postponing difficult choices.
