Nigerians live on hope as Tinubu’s reform pains deepen

…Many citizens depressed, but trudging on – Psychologist

Chinedu Williams, a single father of two in his early 40s, is currently not finding life easy. He barely could feed himself let alone the little children with him.

Williams lost his wife to a heated divorce, leaving him with the responsibility of caring for the little children she left behind.

“I was working in a firm before we all got laid off and ever since then, I’ve been struggling. I am depressed; that was why I had to summon courage to talk to you about it.

“My kids are having difficulty feeding. I Have to swallow my pride to talk to you about it; please don’t be offended.

“Being that I was born and bred in Lagos, I can’t keep on waiting for any white-collar job as I’ve submitted close to 95 copies of my CVs to different organisations, but haven’t heard from them,” Williams told our correspondent Friday.

Like Williams, many Nigerians are struggling to survive on a day-to-day basis on the back of the current administration’s economic reforms.

Despite the promised good time in sight as a result of the numerous reforms embarked upon by the current administration, Nigerians are just surviving on hope, believing that tomorrow will be better than today.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said that the removal of the fuel subsidy has freed a lot of money that resulted in increased monthly allocation to state governors, but the masses are not feeling the positive impact of the huge haul of allocations.

The reforms have impoverished many Nigerians, reducing them to live only on hope for a better tomorrow.

Since coming into power on May 29, 2023, President Tinubu has implemented reforms it says were aimed at recalibrating the economy and fixing structural distortions in the country’s economy.

While reforms are needed to jumpstart the economy and place it on a development trajectory, it is also believed that reforms with human face are needed to succeed according to a recent advisory by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the government.

While Nigerians have waited for the past two years to see the dividends of the various reforms of the government, some analysts have said that ‘baby steps’ being recorded in several sectors are pointers to the fact that better days are far ahead.

For many of the everyday Nigerians, the reforms have taken too long to yield the needed fruits, as it is believed that two years is enough gestation period for any reform to take root.

Like Williams, many young Nigerians are also tired of submitting applications without getting the right response from corporate organisations.

While recent unemployment data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the unemployment rate stood at 5.3 percent in the first quarter of 2024, a slight increase from 5.0 percent in the previous quarter; the reality however, is far from slight as many more Nigerians have been thrown into the labour market on the back of the recent economic reforms implemented by the Federal Government since May 29, 2023.

Gbenga Oni, a young librarian who works in a printing press, told BusinessDay that the government reforms have not helped the plight of many Nigerians; instead it exacerbated their socio-economic condition.

“My view on the reform so far in terms of exchange rate is okay, but on the parts of the masses where I belong it’s not okay at all.

“The economy according to reports so far is improving but it is yet to show on our everyday lives and I mean majority of Nigerians; so, the reform is still performing at an infant level,” he said.

According to Oni, the reforms are yet to show measurable improvement when compared to the economic hardship many Nigerians are facing at the moment.

Read also: The cost of reform: Is Tinubu’s economic experiment a disaster?

Chidi Anthony, a Lagos-based cleric and presiding bishop of Kings in Christ Power Ministry International, told BusinessDay that the economic situation of the country and by extension that of many Nigerians took a turn for the worse on May 29, 2023, following President Bola Tinubu’s inaugural speech on fuel subsidy removal.

“Everybody experienced it from that first day, the increment of fuel pump; that was when the suffering of Nigerians started. And we all thought maybe things will be amended and things will get well. But the more the days approaches, the more things continue getting bad,” he said.

According to him, Nigerians hanging on hope like the government’s mantra ‘renewed hope’ are only doing so out of ignorance because things are getting tougher every day.

“Anybody that is having hope that Nigeria will get better is having hope in a hopeless situation,” he said.

Anthony said that the suffering is so much that many Nigerians are finding it difficult to feed, and the exchange rate volatility has not helped the economic situation of many households. “People are dying in hunger. I’m a pastor; I can tell you directly that in every service, if I tell you many people that do come and you might think they come for counseling, I’m telling you they’re not for counseling.

“Many could not even have something to eat. They’re in the church to beg for food. Most of the people cannot go to church today because they don’t even have money for transport,” Anthony said.

Speaking further on how the exchange rate volatility has affected the economic situation of Nigerians. Anthony said that many do not drive anymore because of the high cost of fueling their vehicle.

“Those that have vehicles, can’t you see even in Lagos where I am today, the hold-up has reduced. To get a vehicle is not the problem, but to fuel it is the problem. That is where we found ourselves.

“Formerly, you can get the type of vehicle I drive for about 10 to 12 million; today, such a vehicle is about 90 to 120 million,” Anthony said.

Allwell Albert, a psychologist, said that the hard times in Nigeria may have driven many citizens into depression.

“Right now, many Nigerians are depressed. There is a huge gap between the numbers being bandied about unemployment and inflation, the reality is far worse than those figures. We are all living in society, what is it that is cheap nowadays? People are really suffering. Why we have not started seeing many people falling down on the on the road is because of the long-suffering nature of an average Nigerian; we wear stress like an armour and pretend all is well when indeed things have gone out of hand. Nigerians are just hanging in there; hope is very far if you really understand the state in which we are in,” Albert said.

The psychologist also believed that “Nigerians have got used to adjusting their belt. Anytime things get harder and tougher, they adjust their belt rather than confronting their enemy. They never get angry enough to ask the right questions to their leaders and demand good governance from their elected representatives.”

Moses Lawal, a Lagos resident, however, disagreed with the assertion that the reforms are not taking shape. He told BusinessDay that the reforms were tough at the onset. However, the paradigm shift was disruptive and tough, but necessary to steer the country from potential economic catastrophe.

“I carefully digested the manifestos and interviews of the three leading presidential candidates in the last general election and knew what to expect. Personally, I knew what to expect and not the least surprised.

“We had to wake up from the illusion of sustaining a PMS subsidy that was making our books bleed red. Also, subsidizing exchange rates was equally unsustainable,” Lawal said.

According to him, the reforms are beginning to show some signs of progress though very slow at the moment. “Fortunately, things have started looking up after the initial gruelling start, both for the macro and micro economic indices.

“Personally, I think it was a battle we needed to have fought much earlier but then, better late than never. I am optimistic of even better and brighter days ahead,” Lawal added.

Read also:Hard times in Nigeria as Tinubu’s reforms deepen cost of living crisis – Reuters 

IMF advisory

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) sometime in October 2024, urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to bring human face to its reforms by directing savings from the fuel subsidy removal into providing a safety net for the poor and vulnerable population in the society.

“Some of the savings from the fuel subsidy reforms and Fx subsidy being removed should now be directed to help cushion the effects on the most vulnerable households,” Abebe Selassie, the head of the IMF’s rhetoric African Department, stated on the sidelines of the World Bank/IMF meetings in Washington, DC, in his regional economic outlook for sub-Saharan Africa press conference.

The IMF said it identifies that the reforms are tough and would have effects on Nigerians, especially the poor and vulnerable. However, it noted that there have been efforts in that direction but the government should do more in terms of putting the savings realised from the subsidy reforms to positive use.