The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticised the Federal Government for ignoring the core message in recent comments by the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on the state of the Nigerian economy, choosing instead to celebrate the headlines.

While acknowledging efforts by the Federal Government to stabilise the economy, the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy challenged the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration to create social safety nets to mitigate the suffering being experienced by Nigerians at the receiving end of its policy reforms.

She said: “The President and his team have worked hard to stabilise the economy. The reforms have been in the right direction. The next step is growth, and alongside that, building social safety nets so those feeling the pinch of reforms can get support.”

She added that growth, job creation, and income expansion must go hand-in-hand with measures to cushion the impact of ongoing reforms on vulnerable Nigerians.

According to the party, government officials and their media surrogates have amplified only one soundbite from her remarks — where she credited the administration for “stabilising the economy” — while deliberately ignoring her more serious call for urgent measures to grow the economy and establish social safety nets for millions of Nigerian families suffering the negative impacts of the government’s reforms.

Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC National Publicity Secretary, accused the Tinubu administration of seeking validation rather than focusing on the job at hand.

The full statement read:

“Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s recent comments on President Tinubu and the Nigerian economy have been seized upon by government officials and their media allies as if their scandalous implementation of hard reforms — which have condemned the majority of Nigerians to absolute poverty and destroyed millions of jobs — had received endorsement by the oracle herself. This is not correct.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala knows that a stable economy is one that is growing in real terms, led by jobs and productivity. She knows that a stable economy is one that is able to guarantee minimum standards of living for the people. She knows that economic stability that leaves the majority in grinding poverty is meaningless.

Therefore, what she’s really saying — which the government has chosen to ignore — is that the economy is not growing, jobs are not being created, and too many people are suffering as a direct consequence of President Tinubu’s ill-conceived and badly implemented reforms. These are the issues she wanted the government to address.

Like the international stateswoman that she is, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala prefaced her comments with the niceties befitting her stature by commending the administration for ‘stabilising the economy.’ But, having done with that courtesy, she immediately highlighted the urgent need for job creation to bring succour to the ever-growing army of unemployed youths and others who lost their jobs as businesses shut down under the crushing weight of the Tinubu-led government. She said the government needs to urgently grow the economy to put money in people’s pockets — which means that whatever ‘stable economy’ the government is celebrating has not translated into real relief for millions of Nigerian families, and they need to change course.

For the record, the economy is not performing in a way that could justify such selective optimism. GDP growth in Q1 2025 was 3.13 percent, and Q2 registered barely over 3 percent — a sluggish pace that fails to meet the expectation of broad-based expansion. Forecasts for the year hover between 3.0 percent and 3.4 percent, far from the robust rebound the administration envisioned. Headline inflation remains unyielding, sitting at 22.22 percent as of June, with food inflation at 21.97 percent, meaning that millions of Nigerians are paying more, not less. Petrol prices now average N1,037.66 per litre, still a significant burden on households and small businesses. The naira trades at around N1,530 to the dollar — drastically weaker than President Tinubu’s pre-reform levels of N460 — eroding purchasing power across the board.

In fact, it is the Tinubu administration’s policy choices — fuel subsidy removal, naira devaluation, tariff hikes on electricity and transport — that have triggered this distress and made social safety nets not optional but essential. Yet these programmes have either been administered haphazardly, suspended, or had negligible impact.

Every well-meaning Nigerian knows that celebrating the mere appearance of ‘stability’ is not only pyrrhic but also dangerous. This is why we believe Dr. Okonjo-Iweala tweeted a clarification this afternoon, noting that Nigerians are experiencing hardship from President Tinubu’s reforms, and that putting in place more programmes to help especially the poor and vulnerable manage this hardship is very important. She further stressed that ‘At the same time, it is necessary to start work on growing the economy to create more jobs and put money in people’s pockets.’

It is in this regard that the ADC strongly believes such candour from a global economic leader like Dr. Okonjo-Iweala underscores the urgent need for federal government policies that go beyond rhetoric and propaganda, but instead address the daily harsh realities of millions of Nigerians under the APC.” (Nigerian Tribune)