Former Senator Abiodun Olujimi has urged Nigerians to be patient with the economic reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu’s administration, saying the measures are beginning to stabilise the country and could pave the way for improved prosperity.
Gatekeepers News reports that Olujimi, who represented Ekiti South in the Senate from 2015 to 2023, made the call on Friday while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.
She cited the unification of the foreign exchange market as one of the reforms that could help reposition the economy.
“The other time I wanted to increase my stock. And I was asking someone, I said, ‘Where do we get foreign exchange to do this?’ And he came to me and said, ‘No, ma. You need Naira to do it.’ I said, ‘How?’ He said, ‘People abroad now take Naira.’
“That is the trajectory; that is the only way we can upturn what had been undone in the past. In the past we complained, but we didn’t do anything about it. We would just sit down and pontificate. And we didn’t hold the government to account. We left them to do whatever they pleased,” she said.
According to Olujimi, the reforms have come with difficulties, but she believes Nigerians can endure the current challenges if the measures eventually deliver the desired economic transformation.
“Now the thing went bad. There is a government that is trying to see how we can turn it around, and then the struggle begins all over again. But I believe we can bear it. And if we bear it, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
Tinubu introduced a number of economic policies after assuming office in May 2023, including the removal of the petrol subsidy and reforms to the foreign exchange market.
The subsidy removal, in particular, has triggered a sharp increase in petrol prices, with the cost rising from about ₦200 per litre to more than ₦1,300 in some locations.
Critics and opposition figures have blamed the reforms for worsening the cost-of-living crisis and have called for some of the measures to be reversed. The Federal Government, however, has maintained that the policies are necessary to accelerate economic growth and development.
Olujimi said the reforms should be given more time to take effect, arguing that the country could eventually benefit from them.
“If we allow it for a bit, we’ll just turn around the corner, and then we’ll be able to see prosperity, because prosperity is staring us in the face,” she said.
She also pointed to changes in the foreign exchange market as evidence of a shift away from practices she described as round-tripping.
“Where are the people who were doing the round-tripping, who were selling and buying dollars? It’s gone. Business now is strictly naira-based. And that is the only way we can go if we really want to reform the situation,” Olujimi said.
