When WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala praised President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms for bringing stability to Nigeria’s economy, many Nigerians were left wondering: stability for whom? On paper, the removal of fuel subsidy, exchange rate unification, and tighter fiscal discipline signal boldness. They reassure international investors and financial institutions that Nigeria is finally facing its realities. But at home, this celebrated “stability” has brought inflation, poverty, and hardship—turning stability into what many see as economic strangulation.
Fuel subsidy removal may have saved billions for government finances, but it tripled transport fares overnight. Exchange rate reform eliminated distortions but caused the naira to plummet from ₦460/$ in May 2023 to over ₦1,500/$ in 2025. The result is a severe inflation crisis in Nigeria, with food inflation soaring above 40 percent. While international observers see discipline, ordinary families earning ₦50,000 a month now struggle to afford even the basics. The World Bank estimates that more than 24 million Nigerians have been pushed into poverty since these reforms began.
The irony is sharp. During the oil boom of the 1970s, General Yakubu Gowon once declared that Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend it. Today, the country is told that its problem is fiscal recklessness and that austerity is the cure. Okonjo-Iweala’s praise of Tinubu’s economic policy reflects the global approval, but inside Nigeria, the reforms look less like stabilization and more like suffocation. Economic stability in Nigeria cannot be measured by balance sheets alone.
True development must go beyond correcting exchange rates or balancing government books. Without job creation, investment in local production, affordable credit for businesses, and safety nets for vulnerable households, stabilization is nothing more than a façade. Nigeria risks repeating the lost decade of Latin America in the 1980s, when IMF-backed austerity measures balanced accounts but deepened poverty and inequality. Even Okonjo-Iweala admits that stabilization is only the first step. The next must be inclusive growth—policies that create jobs, empower businesses, and protect citizens from economic shocks.
The real test of Tinubu’s economic reforms is not foreign applause or improved fiscal indicators. It is whether Nigerians can feed their families, educate their children, and live with dignity. Until reforms translate into inclusive growth and opportunity, stability will remain hollow—a euphemism for strangulation.