In a dazzling exhibition of fiscal acrobatics, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has once again taken centre stage, this time with a polite request for a “mere” USD 6 billion loan, swiftly endorsed by a Senate that now performs less like a watchdog and more like a well-rehearsed choir. One must admire the efficiency: no friction, no questions, just harmonious approval. After all, what is another few billion USD atop a mountainous USD 154 billion debt profile?
At this pace, Nigeria’s unborn generations are not just indebted, they are pre-indebted, already pencilled into a future of compound regret.
This borrowing binge comes after a series of “bold reforms”: fuel subsidies eliminated with surgical ruthlessness, electricity tariffs liberated into the wild, and the naira courageously floated into what appears to be an endless free fall. Taxes rise with evangelical zeal, while citizens are left to meditate on the spiritual benefits of austerity. Inflation gallops unchecked, the economy staggers like a dazed prizefighter, and the minimum wage, already fragile, has now been reduced to a cruel metaphor.
Yet, in a plot twist worthy of satire, government revenue has reportedly multiplied nearly tenfold since 2023. One might expect a corresponding bloom in public welfare, but alas, prosperity remains an elusive rumour whispered in policy circles, while hardship has become the most reliable public utility. Global oil price shocks, fuelled by distant geopolitical dramas, only add insult to injury, but the real sting lies in domestic policies that ensure Nigerians pay a premium for both global chaos and local experimentation.
So we must ask, with all due sarcasm: is this the much-advertised “Renewed Hope,” or simply a rebranded curriculum in national endurance? Because if suffering were an Olympic event, Nigeria, under this administration, would not just compete; it would dominate the podium, draped in gold, silver, and bronze of its own making.
Alex Ter Adum, PhD
DDG THE NARRATIVE FORCE
