The Nigerian presidency has fired back at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for what it described as a “very fatalistic” and destabilising assessment of the Bola Tinubu-led administration’s economic reforms.
The Tinubu government on Tuesday claimed that it is unrealistic to expect Nigeria’s deep-rooted problems to be solved in two years.
In a response delivered on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs, Tope Fasua, accused the IMF of relentless and unfair criticism aimed at undermining Nigeria’s reform efforts.
“This administration under President Tinubu has done some of the deepest reforms that we have seen in a while. We only just got the tax bills signed into law—bills that offer relief to low-income earners and double the tax threshold for small businesses,” Fasua said.
“We haven’t even allowed those measures to settle, yet we’re hearing all sorts of very fatalistic statements from different places, including, unfortunately, the IMF,” he added.
The IMF recently released an article titled “How Nigeria Can Unleash Its Economic Potential,” where it raised the alarm over Nigeria’s skyrocketing inflation and the perceived sluggish impact of the government’s economic reforms.
But Fasua dismissed the report as part of a pattern of “heckling” from the Bretton Woods institution.
He claimed the IMF was bombarding Nigeria with near-weekly statements that were counterproductive and confusing.
“Sometimes one wants to think they go into overdrive, almost every week or every two to three days, there’s a statement on Nigeria. At the end of the day, it leaves everyone in a state of confusion,” he said.
The economic adviser revealed that Nigeria had already repaid $3 billion in loans to the IMF, a COVID-19 facility, while many other countries have not. Yet, according to him, the Fund continues to mount pressure without acknowledging the government’s progress.
“We’re not asking for a pat on the back; we’re just saying, you know what, give us a breather. Let us be able to implement the policies we’ve started. They acknowledge that the reforms are good, yet they keep demanding more, and it’s almost like being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea,” Fasua stated.
He warned that the IMF’s harsh tone could backfire by turning the Nigerian public against the government, given the already difficult economic realities being felt nationwide.
“Give us a break; let us be able to know where we are going before coming at us at every angle and generally throwing us off whack. It’s like a house that is completely dilapidated,” he said.
“And we’re being asked to provide full comfort in two years after removing the roof and working on the foundation. That’s not realistic.” (SaharaReporters)
