Author: Tanimu Yakubu

A STRIKING feature of Nigeria’s current economic debate is the enthusiasm with which huge numbers are circulated and the casualness with which they are assembled. Tax collections are added to oil receipts; oil receipts are added again under customs or “subsidy savings”; borrowing is treated as income; and the resulting total is presented as proof of incompetence or theft. This is not an economic analysis. It is an arithmetic illusion. At the core of most viral critiques of Tinubunomics lies a fundamental failure to distinguish between revenue, cash, and financing, and between federation-wide collections and federal budgetary resources. These are…

IN early 2024, Nigeria’s naira collapsed to ₦1,800 per dollar, rattling households and businesses alike. By August 2025, it had strengthened to ₦1,525. For President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, this was not just recovery but the opening proof of his broader political economy: building Nigeria on three foundations credible currency, concrete infrastructure, and kilowatts of power. Currency reform was the first bold stroke. By floating the naira, clearing a $4 billion foreign exchange backlog, and bringing remittances into official channels, the government restored some measure of trust. For traders, it meant fewer shocks when pricing goods. For students abroad, it meant…

WHEN President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration dismantled Nigeria’s rigid foreign exchange regime in 2024, critics were quick to call it a currency collapse. The naira plunged to ₦1,800 per dollar in March 2024, and headlines screamed of economic freefall. But beneath the noise, a deliberate, high-risk economic recalibration was underway, one that has now begun to pay off in spectacular fashion. By August 2025, the naira had clawed its way back to ₦1,525/$1, marking a 15.28% strengthening in just five months, an annualised pace of nearly 48.9%. This wasn’t luck; it was policy. Increased oil receipts, swelling diaspora remittances, and…