Nigeria would have needed wheelbarrows to carry worthless naira without reforms, Tinubu says

President Bola Tinubu has defended his administration’s economic reforms, claiming that Nigeria would have faced a deeper financial crisis, with citizens needing wheelbarrows to transport money to markets, if his government had failed to take decisive action upon assuming office in May 2023.

Tinubu spoke on Friday at a reception organised in his honour at the ARISE Palm Resort in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, where he insisted that the removal of petrol subsidy and other economic decisions had prevented the country from sliding into bankruptcy.

The President acknowledged that the reforms had imposed hardship on Nigerians but maintained that reversing them would take the country back to what he described as an unsustainable economic situation.

“By now, if we didn’t take a decision the day I took over, we will use wheelbarrows to move our naira because it would have been valueless,” he said.

“We are talking of N1,300 now to a dollar because it still has pocketable value. If we had left it, it would have been a wheelbarrow when you go to tomatoes market.”

He further claimed that 27 of the 36 state governors were unable to meet their salary obligations when he assumed office, adding that the situation had improved under his administration.

“When I took over, 27 governors out of 36 governors of this country were unable to pay salary obligations, not to talk of pensions and gratuity,” he said.

Tinubu said Nigeria had moved away from the possibility of bankruptcy, describing the current situation as a departure from the uncertainty that confronted the country before his inauguration.