Odimmegwa Johnpeter/Abuja
The Democratic Front (TDF) has welcomed the recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) statement on Nigeria and its overall positive assessment of the President Bola Tinubu administration’s reform agenda.
However, it questions the observation that Nigeria’s poverty Index Increased to 60%, in a statement signed by its Chairman. Mallam Danjuma Muhammad and Secretary, Chief Wale Adedayo.
“It is necessary to acknowledge the section of the report that three quarters of the increase in poverty from 40% to 61%, as observed by the World Bank, actually occurred between 2019 and 2023, before the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government assumed office.
“The import of the acknowledgement is the need to explain the economic factor that triggered the increase in multi-dimensional poverty in the country.
“The period between 2019 and 2023 represents the post- COVID-19 years when pandemic- induced, socio-economic decline deprived a vast percentage of the Nigerian population of stable income, and the gross national cash flow was devastated, due to economic disruption in the supply value chain.
“It is therefore our opinion that the increase in poverty to 61% as reported by the World Bank, and as contained in the IMF assessment statement on Nigeria’s economic outlook, was largely not a direct impact of Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda reforms, but the economic aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic that devastated the political, economic, and social lives of the people.”
The group also highlighted the role played by the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.
Similarly, there is a pertinent need to acknowledge that before the joint US-Israeli war on Iran, which led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Tinubu reforms had shown significant strength in steady economic growth, by keeping the competitive market price of petroleum between N700 and N800, and stabilising the free float exchange rates with proximity to a single window.
“In a country like Nigeria, where the pump price of petroleum determines the cost of living, the war against Iran, which threw the global economy off balance, can be said to be a national tragedy. Nigeria is even lucky to have had an economic reset under the Tinubu administration before the military attack on Iran was launched; otherwise, the nation would have faced a more rigorous and challenging economic situation.
“Happily, the Minister of Finance and coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, has further confirmed the determination of the administration to translate the long-term gains and opportunities of the economic reforms into reflecting in the lives of Nigerians.
“This commitment is quite evident in the recent approval of over N700 bn for payment to 1,240 local contractors to uphold the government’s obligations to service providers, and to boost cash flow in the supply value chain,” it added.
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