The news that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) under the watch of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had endorsed and adopted a-90-day economic development plan initiated by the National Economic Council (NEC) was bizarre, odd and outlandish. The very short-term plan said to have been proposed by the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) led by Taiwo Oyedele, reportedly aims to tackle the negative effects of the outcomes of President Tinubu’s economic reforms since 2023.
The plan, according to the NEC headed by the Vice President Kashim Shettima, will focus on “reducing the cost of living, improving food affordability, attracting investment, and accelerating the delivery of projects with direct benefits to Nigerians.” Specifically, the three-month ‘action plan’ identifies five priority areas, namely: food affordability, tax harmonisation, completion of high-impact projects, resolution of investment bottlenecks and regulated household support.
Addressing NEC members (who are governors of the 36 states), Shettima charged them and relevant government institutions to ensure that the gains of the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms translate into affordable transportation, improved healthcare, employment opportunities and greater financial security for Nigerians. He said the success of economic policies must ultimately be measured by their impact on citizens’ daily lives, stressing that the responsibility of government extends beyond announcing reforms to building institutions that enable Nigerians to plan their future with confidence.
Apposite as these sanctimonious statements might seem, they only largely portray the reforms and policies of the Bola Amed Tinubu administration in the past three years as pernicious. This viewpoint is underpinned by the fact that the reforms all these years woefully failed to address the very basic essence of government — which is catering for the wellbeing of the people.
For a government that is to run for four years (first term) to now literally wake up from slumber, after 40 months from its take-off, to adopt a 90-day economic blueprint, is only exhibiting a clear lack of direction. All that VP Shettima and Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele said to justify the “90-day action plan” only amounted to an indictment of the government of the day.
Had the much-flaunted reforms achieved the intended results, would the Tinubu administration be grappling with the wide-spread debilitating hunger and poverty among Nigerians at this time? Would the administration be concerned about the completion of “high-impact” projects in 90 days if it had not been rudderless these past years?
The government is now realising that there have been a bunch of bottlenecks against investments flow into the country; and all of these are to be dismantled within the magical period of 90 days. Also, after all the billions of naira and other resources that went into the making of the recent tax laws in the country, the government is also planning to achieve another “tax harmonisation” as part of its 90-day development blueprint. Haba!
Regarding households, the government at the centre is also just realising that the wave of impoverishment unleashed by its reforms has been scorching. It took finance minister Oyedele, speaking recently at Chatham House in London, to admit that “Nigerian households spend as much as 120 percent of their income on food amid soaring prices.” Oyedele said “monthly incomes could no longer sustain many Nigerians, forcing them to borrow money or rely on relatives to survive.”
The minister said although the country was making significant efforts to stabilise the macroeconomy, ordinary Nigerians were yet to feel the impact. “Macroeconomic stability means little to a mother who still cannot afford food,” he said.
Apparently, in sudden realisation of these reform pitfalls, the Tinubu administration is, as usual, resorting to hasty, panicky measures to assuage the pains of citizens. It is resorting to its usual palliatives. In the name of a 90-day “action plan”, the federal government is deploying what looks more like ‘voodoo economics’ to (magically) turnaround the life of Nigerians, and uplift their wellbeing in a matter of days.
Suddenly, the federal government hammered out an agreement with organised labour to pay seventy thousand naira transport allowance to civil servants for the next six months. Reports say “the Federal Government has approved a N70,000 transport intervention for workers across all levels for six months, beginning in November 2026, following a conciliation meeting with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).”
Under the agreement, the government also approved the payment of “peculiar allowance arrears”, effective from May 1, 2026, with payments also scheduled to begin in November, in “three equal instalments.” The government also promised that “Nineteen (19) months arrears of allowances for health workers will be redeemed within three (3) months, with effect from December 2026.”
In fairness to the Tinubu administration, all these initiatives, especially in the heat of ongoing campaign for Mr. President’s re-election in January 2027, are mere ad hoc measures. They were neither part of the reforms, nor were they anticipated as fallouts of the outcomes of his economic policies in the past three years.
No economy anywhere is run on ‘ad hoc-ism’ or ‘short-termism’, or ‘palliative-ism’, as the Tinubu administration is doing at present. A few weeks ago, President Tinubu was announcing to the whole world that come October 1, 2026, the cost of transportation would crash nationwide. That promise and its attendant euphoria has remained mere hot air. Even the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) that was to administer N66 (per litre of petrol) discount for just one month (October 2026) reneged.
In point of fact, in response to the dictates of market forces within October, the NNPCL had not only abandoned the so-called discount, but also gone ahead to increase the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at its fuel stations all over the country. Public transport vehicles that run on compressed natural gas (CNG) that were to also ‘flood’ the roads are yet few and far between in the country. Also, the number of CNG plants are still few, relative to the size and population of the country.
In all, what the President Tinubu administration is trying to achieve within three months to ensure some visible positive impacts of its reforms on Nigerians, is nothing short of Voodoo Economics or pure magic. Neither the pervasive hunger and poverty in the land can abate in 90 days, nor the inclement investment climate can suddenly be turned around. The 90-day “action plan” is most likely a gamble. Surely, motion without movement!
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Marcel Okeke, a practising economist and consultant in Business Strategy & Sustainability based in Lagos, is a former Chief Economist at Zenith Bank Plc. He can be reached at: obioraokeke2000@yahoo.com; +2348033075697
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