President Bola Tinubu’s reform programme is a bold agenda that has affected the institutional and economic structures of Nigeria in the last three years. Some of the decisions taken by the administration were difficult but necessary, particularly in confronting structural weaknesses that successive governments had either avoided or merely postponed.
The problem, however, is that a good idea may look bad if it is poorly implemented. While the reforms have produced some significant macroeconomic gains and, arguably, pulled the country back from the abyss towards which it was heading, there are still yawning gaps that the government must address going forward.
It is unrealistic to expect painless therapeutic solutions to Nigeria’s longstanding economic problems. There was always going to be a price to pay for correcting decades of distortions, subsidies, fiscal indiscipline and weak institutions. But when the medicine begins to hurt the patient more than the disease, the physician must review the treatment.
This is where the Tinubu administration must demonstrate greater urgency.
The central weakness of the reform programme is not necessarily that the government is pursuing the wrong objectives. It is that economic growth and macroeconomic indicators appear to have received greater attention than the welfare of the people who are expected to benefit from that growth.
There is an increasing obsession with economic growth numbers without corresponding pragmatic initiatives to mitigate the immediate impact of the reforms on ordinary Nigerians. Inflation may eventually moderate, foreign exchange markets may stabilise and government revenues may improve, but these achievements will mean little to a family that can no longer afford basic food, transportation, housing or healthcare.
Growth must therefore be measured not only by what happens to government statistics, but also by what happens to the purchasing power, dignity and economic opportunities of the average Nigerian.
The power problem is another glaring weakness. Nigeria cannot build a competitive economy on unreliable electricity. For decades, businesses have been forced to generate a significant portion of their own power, transferring the cost directly to consumers through higher prices. The consequences are obvious. Production becomes more expensive, businesses become less competitive and inflationary pressures persist.
The government needs a clear and credible short, medium and long-term blueprint for solving the electricity problem. Nigerians need to know what can realistically be achieved within two years, five years and ten years. The country cannot continue to treat electricity as an emergency that is permanently awaiting another emergency solution.
Throwing money at deeply entrenched problems is not a substitute for structural solutions. Token interventions may provide temporary relief, but they cannot permanently resolve poverty, public asset pillage, vandalism, youth frustration or the growing discontent arising from the fallout of the reforms.
Nigeria needs interventions that address the causes of these problems. Young people need meaningful economic opportunities, not occasional palliatives. Public assets need protection and accountability, not repeated reconstruction after vandalism. Poor communities need functioning institutions and productive opportunities rather than periodic handouts.
There is also the troubling issue of the continued expansion of the cost of government. At a time when citizens are being asked to make sacrifices, the government must be seen to be making sacrifices too. Expanding the machinery of government merely to create positions for political allies sends the wrong message.
The answer is not simply to create more agencies, appointments and bureaucratic structures. It is to pursue bold measures that reduce official corruption, eliminate leakages in public finance and ensure that available resources are deployed where they can have the greatest economic and social impact.
A government that asks citizens to endure painful reforms must demonstrate that it is equally prepared to reform itself.
Then there is the security question, which cannot be separated from the broader social and economic crisis. Nigeria’s insecurity is not merely a military problem. It is deeply connected to illiteracy, unemployment, social dysfunction, weak grassroots governance structures and religious bigotry, particularly in parts of the North.
Military operations may suppress violence temporarily, but they cannot by themselves eliminate the conditions that continuously produce new recruits for criminal and extremist networks. A serious security strategy must therefore combine military action with education, employment, effective local governance and social intervention.
The administration must begin to see these problems as interconnected rather than as isolated challenges. Poverty feeds frustration. Frustration feeds criminality. Poor electricity raises the cost of production. High production costs feed inflation. Inflation deepens poverty. Weak institutions allow corruption and public asset pillage to continue. And insecurity further discourages investment and economic activity.
This is the cycle that must be broken.
President Tinubu has taken some difficult steps in attempting to reposition the Nigerian economy. The next phase, however, cannot be driven by reform for reform’s sake. It must be driven by the question of how those reforms can translate into a better, safer and more productive life for Nigerians.
And this is where the real work begins…
*Ladi Ayodeji, marriage counselor, author, media expert and philosopher, can be reached on 09059243004, WhatsApp only.
