We met near-insolvent public finance, a decades-old monster of unsustainable multiple subsidies, a chaotic and debilitating forex regime.” — President Tinubu
President Bola Tinubu made a striking admission during Thursday’s state visit to Anambra, revealing Nigeria’s treasury was “near-insolvent” when he assumed office in May 2023. Addressing attendees at Awka’s grand reception, he detailed inheriting “a decades-old monster of unsustainable multiple subsidies” and “a chaotic and debilitating forex regime” from the Buhari administration. “Just as we tamed the Atlantic in Lagos, many of these monsters have been tackled,” Tinubu declared, referencing his governance legacy as Lagos governor.
The President’s remarks constitute his most explicit public acknowledgement of Nigeria’s dire 2023 fiscal state, marked by N77 trillion public debt and record subsidy payments consuming 96% of 2022 revenue. Despite public outcry over resultant inflation and hardship, Tinubu maintained his administration’s removal of fuel subsidies and naira floatation were unavoidable corrective measures now yielding macroeconomic stabilization.
While defending these “painful reforms,” the President pointed to recent World Bank projections of 3.3% GDP growth in 2024 as evidence of progress. His speech balanced transparency about inherited challenges with assurances of recovery, stating Nigeria was “now on the path to sustainable prosperity” through what he termed “difficult but necessary decisions.”
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