Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has lashed out at the Tinubu administration, describing the current economic reality as “organised hardship dressed up as reform,” driven by policy confusion, weak leadership, and a dangerous detachment from the suffering of ordinary Nigerians.
Reacting to the latest warning by the International Monetary Fund, Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the IMF has merely put official language to what Nigerians already feel in their bones every single day.
“At a time when Nigerians were promised renewed hope, what they have received is renewed hardship—raw, relentless, and unforgiving,” Atiku said.
“The IMF is not breaking news; it is confirming a national emergency that this administration refuses to acknowledge.”
He noted that while government officials speak in “polished economic jargon”, Nigerians are living a different reality—one where wages have become worthless paper, markets have turned into museums of unaffordable goods, and survival has become a daily gamble.
He lamented that despite rising global oil prices, Nigerians were sinking deeper into poverty, crushed under spiralling food prices, punishing transportation costs, a chaotic exchange rate, and a currency that seems to lose value by the hour.
“At the grassroots, the story is even more brutal,” he continued. “Parents are pulling children out of school because education is now a luxury. Farmers are abandoning their lands out of fear of violence.
“Young people roam the streets, degrees in hand but hope in short supply. Small businesses are folding up like pack of cards under the weight of electricity tariffs, taxes, and a suffocating business climate.”
He warned that what is unfolding is not just an economic downturn, but a full-blown erosion of human dignity.
“This administration has turned sacrifice into a one-way street where the people bleed and the government lectures,” Atiku said.
“You cannot ask a hungry people to be patient while policies choke the life out of them. That is not reform—that is punishment.”
Atiku expressed deep concern over the rising debt burden, warning that Nigeria is walking into a trap where today’s hardship is being financed by tomorrow’s despair.
“We are borrowing like there is no tomorrow, yet there is nothing to show today,” he said. “No jobs, no relief, no visible improvement in the lives of the people—only mounting debt and mounting pain.”
He further criticised the administration’s obsession with “abstract economic theories” while ignoring the human cost.
“Governance is not a classroom exercise,” he said. “It is about whether a pot boils in the kitchen, whether transport fare can be afforded, whether a small trader can restock, and whether a nation’s youth can dream again. Today, those simple things have become distant luxuries.”
Calling for urgent action, Atiku urged the Federal Government to abandon what he described as “trial-and-error economics” and implement immediate, people-focused interventions to stabilise prices, revive small businesses, reduce the cost of transportation, and protect the most vulnerable.
“This is not the time for speeches. It is the time for rescue,” he said.
“Leadership must step down from its high horse and walk the dusty streets where Nigerians are struggling to breathe.”
“The true test of leadership is simple: are the people better off or worse? Today, Nigerians are worse off—far worse off. And no amount of spin can hide that truth.”