Tinubu’s Year of Unstable Policies
In its first year, the Tinubu administration has been characterized by hasty decisions and haphazardly thought policies, a situation that has greatly stalled Nigeria’s progress.
On May 29 2023, while thousands of Nigerians trooped to Eagle Square in Abuja to witness the transfer of democratic power from Muhammadu Buhari to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and millions more watched on television, President Tinubu unexpectedly announced the immediate removal of fuel subsidies. His announcement sent Nigeria into chaos. Filling stations, unprepared for this development, initially shut down their operations, refusing to sell while long fuel queues quickly emerged across the nation. Many, and I was one of them, were hoping that the old price of petrol which stood at N200 per litre at the time would still be sustained until old stocks had been sold out. We could not have been more wrong. By evening, the official price of petrol had increased to N500. Those who could not stay on the long queues bought at black market rates of over N1,000. With high demand and constrained supply, fuel became scarce. Many Nigerians did not expect the Tinubu administration would start this way. Even Tinubu’s die-hard supporters were shocked by the sudden fuel subsidy removal. Even though the removal was expected due to fuel subsidies not being included in the other half of the 2024 budget, no one predicted the subsidy would be removed completely, or within the first few minutes of Tinubu’s inauguration.
The fuel subsidy removal sent the prices of commodities, especially food, skyrocketing due to an increase in the price of logistics, running costs for alternative energy for businesses and reduced disposable income. According to the Stanbic IBTC Purchasing Manager Index, the subsidy removal crippled the spending power of individuals and companies in June 2023. The index highlighted that Nigerians spent N3.05 trillion less on food and other household consumption in the first half of 2023. Since the fuel subsidy removal, the price of commodities has continued to rise. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s annual inflation rate rose to 31.70 per cent in February 2024 from 29.90 per cent in January 2024...
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