Nigeria’s New President Faces Two Battles: And One Is Rebuilding An Economy In Tatters

Notwithstanding the controversies that encompassed Nigeria’s recent elections, the new President of the country Bola Ahmed Tinubu has a challenging task of revamping an economy that is shredded.

On February 25, 2023, the All Progressives Congress, the ruling party, declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election. That marked the end of a political career that included two terms as governor of Nigeria’s richest state, Lagos State, and a seat in the Senate.

He now has two challenges to deal with: a legal challenge to his victory and the difficult task of rebuilding a failing economy. Unemployment of 37%, an inefficient power sector, high public debt, and a gasoline subsidy that consumes a significant amount of government spending are all issues that require immediate attention.

In Nigeria, some economists have said that the President should start with a great economic team that knows the issues well, both theoretically and practically. And if the nation can have that sort of team, they can have any desire for quality economic policies.

Nigerians Are Not Happy. And This Is Their Reason

The outgoing administration of Muhammadu Buhari launched a development plan, Agenda 2050, to change Nigeria into an upper middle income economy by that date. Agenda 2050 will be put into action by the incoming administration on May 29. According to some economists, it must implement significant reforms in order to accomplish this.

The policy of foreign exchange currencies is number one. With an official rate of 460.98 naira to the dollar as of March 23 and rates as high as 745 naira on the black or parallel market, Nigeria cannot run a successful economy.

Experts in the field of economics recommend that Tinubu should appoint the best people to lead economic institutions and ministries, including the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, and key investment promotion institutions, economic experts recommend.

Tinubu stated during his campaign that he would replicate the “magic” that transformed Lagos State’s economy at the national level. However, he must first resolve lawsuits brought by two opposing presidential candidates.

Both Atiku Abubakar, a member of the People’s Democratic Party, and Peter Obi, a member of the Labour Party, have criticized Tinubu’s victory and are requesting that the courts invalidate it, despite each claiming that Tinubu won.