Resilience, Patriotic Endurance of Nigerians Sustain Tinubu’s Historic Economic Reforms — IMPI

Resilience, Patriotic Endurance of Nigerians Sustain Tinubu’s Historic Economic Reforms — IMPI

The Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI), a national think tank, has commended the resilience and patriotic endurance of Nigerians, saying their ability to withstand the immediate hardships associated with the ongoing economic reforms has provided the stability needed for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s bold economic transition to take root.

In a statement titled “Nigerians as Actual Executors of Tinubu’s Reforms as Economy Transits from Consumption to Productivity,” released on July 31, 2026, in Abuja, IMPI Chairman, Dr. Omoniyi Akinsiju, said the success and long-term sustainability of the reforms were largely dependent on the Nigerian people.

According to him, Nigerians have simultaneously served as the “primary shock absorbers, ultimate arbiters of accountability and engine of behavioural realignment” required to support the transition to a more market-driven and productive economy.

Akinsiju said Nigerians had played critical roles in three major areas: absorbing the immediate shocks of economic restructuring, demanding fiscal accountability and enforcement of the social contract, and driving behavioural changes towards local production and productivity.

He noted that the most immediate and painful burden borne by Nigerians was the inflationary and cost-of-living pressure triggered by the removal of fuel subsidy and the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market.

“By enduring the immediate increase in the cost of transportation, food and energy following the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira, the public has effectively provided the fiscal breathing room required by government to strengthen the country’s fiscal position and rebuild external reserves,” he said.

Akinsiju added that the resilience of Nigerian households and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in adapting to difficult macroeconomic conditions had helped keep the economy functioning despite severe inflationary pressures experienced in 2024 and 2025.

He further stressed that the success of market-oriented reforms depended not only on government policies but also on citizens and investors being able to see that public resources saved through reforms were being deployed transparently and productively.

According to him, Nigerians have increasingly played the role of enforcers of the social contract through civil society advocacy, public discourse and social media engagements, demanding that resources saved from subsidy removal be channelled into tangible infrastructure, healthcare and human capital development rather than bureaucratic waste.

He noted that the success of targeted intervention programmes, including the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) transport initiatives and direct cash-transfer programmes, also depended on citizens actively monitoring their implementation and demanding accountability.

“The success of these interventions relies entirely on the public actively participating in monitoring and holding these institutions accountable to ensure that the benefits are not swallowed by corruption,” he said.

The IMPI chairman also argued that long-term economic stability could not depend solely on Central Bank interventions or foreign portfolio investments, stressing the need for a fundamental change in how Nigerians produce and consume.

He said the depreciation of the naira and the rising cost of imported goods were creating an opportunity for Nigerians to embrace local products and support domestic manufacturing, agriculture and technology businesses.

“As the floating of the naira makes imported goods exponentially more expensive, the role of Nigerian consumers and businesses is shifting towards ‘Buying Nigerian’, supporting local manufacturing, agriculture and tech startups. This is what will ultimately reduce the country’s systemic vulnerability to foreign exchange volatility,” he said.

Akinsiju further noted that as the Federal Government seeks to increase non-oil revenue, citizens and businesses transitioning into the formal economy would play an important role in building a sustainable, tax-funded fiscal structure and reducing Nigeria’s historical dependence on volatile oil revenues.

He said the current economic transformation should also be understood against the backdrop of previous policy choices, arguing that decades of command-and-control monetary policies and heavily subsidised consumption had weakened national reserves and discouraged domestic production.

“Historically, whenever the currency experienced depreciation pressure, previous administrations routinely panicked and capitulated to short-term political backlash by reinstating artificial pegs and capital controls,” he said.

According to him, such policies encouraged illicit arbitrage, enriched rent-seeking interests and deprived critical sectors, including manufacturing, processing and public infrastructure, of much-needed investment.

He described the resulting economy as “highly susceptible to global oil shocks, structurally deficient and incapable of sustaining organic growth.”

Akinsiju said the Tinubu administration had broken with that pattern by addressing what he described as the root causes of Nigeria’s economic challenges.

“Rather than burn billions of dollars monthly to defend an artificial exchange rate, the current administration has unified the market, allowed transparent pricing mechanisms to take hold and completely eliminated the corruption-laden petrol subsidy,” he said.

He added that the reforms had also altered the perception of Nigeria among international investors.

“By taking the ‘bitter medicine’ that previous governments avoided, this Federal Government has fundamentally changed the global perception of the Nigerian marketplace. Investors no longer view Nigeria as a volatile, state-managed playground, but rather as a serious and transparent frontier market willing to make difficult choices to secure its economic future,” Akinsiju said.

He said the central philosophy of the administration’s structural reform agenda was that Nigeria must produce what it consumes and add value to what it exports.

“The transition to a production-based economy is being driven by a combination of aggressive fiscal adjustments, institutional digitisation and long-term industrial planning,” he noted.

IMPI urged the Federal Government to sustain the reform momentum while strengthening social protection, transparency, accountability and policies that enable Nigerian households and businesses to participate meaningfully in the transition to a productive and sustainable economy.