The Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has said that the much-celebrated economic stability under President Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government is a ruse.
In an interview, Adebayo described the recent report that inflation has dropped to 20.7 percent as “a slap on Nigerians,” stressing that across Africa, inflation hardly exceeds five percent.
He cited Benin Republic with less than two percent inflation, Senegal with below three percent, Tanzania at 3.3 percent, and both South Africa and Morocco with less than five percent, noting that Nigeria must reduce inflation to about seven percent before economic recovery can be discussed.
“In a way, the economy, in terms of these numbers, is not worse now than it was last year. It’s slightly better but far away from where it ought to be,” he said. “If you go around ECOWAS countries, most have inflation between one and three percent. Even Tanzania, which is beginning to resemble our economy, is just 3.3 percent.
“So, there is no major country, South Africa, our competitor, Morocco that has inflation up to five percent. We are still at 20.7 percent. We need to get as low as seven percent before we can begin to talk of recovery. Yes, it’s better than last year, but it’s not a number that will take us to the Promised Land.”
Adebayo urged the Federal Government to focus on the real economy by developing infrastructure and creating jobs, referencing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report that attributed Nigeria’s inflation largely to poor infrastructure.
“If we improve infrastructure, transport costs will reduce, which will affect food prices, productivity, and disposable income. That will cushion the effect of poor wages in the country,” he said.
He also projected that if current policies continue, the naira may fall to about ₦1,430 per dollar by Christmas, but warned that such a shift would not translate to a strong economy.
Responding to former Speaker Yakubu Dogara’s claim that Tinubu inherited a “dead economy,” Adebayo said while Dogara was right about the failures of the Buhari administration, Tinubu has not done enough to change the situation.
He likened the economy to “a patient in an emergency room.” According to him, “What President Tinubu has done is to stabilise the patient, but I’m not sure he has diagnosed the real ailment. The patient may not die immediately, but without proper diagnosis, there’s no cure.”
Adebayo acknowledged that Tinubu had secured more revenue and reduced domestic borrowing compared to Buhari but argued that poor policies have weakened the impact of these gains.
He also faulted the government’s rebasing of inflation, which he said created an impression of progress without reflecting improvements in the real economy.
“Food inflation, a major component of the inflation basket, has dropped slightly, but ordinary Nigerians can’t feel it yet,” he said. “It’s like lowering a bag of rice from 10 feet to eight feet, it’s still out of reach.”
