As economic difficulties continue to affect millions of Nigerians, the Presidency has described opposition critics as “haters of Nigeria’s progress,” accusing them of plotting to destabilise the country.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Information and Strategy, made this claim in a post shared on Tuesday, citing a 2022 warning by the former Emir of Kano and ex-CBN Governor, Muhammadu Sanusi II, who had earlier urged Nigerians to brace for tough economic reforms.
Onanuga said those who opposed the administration’s decisions were attempting to derail what he called “the most focused and most transformative administration in Nigeria’s history.”
“Emir Sanusi warned Nigerians what to expect from President Tinubu’s reforms. ‘It’s not going to be easy,’ he said. ‘If anybody tells you it would be easy, don’t vote for him.’ Just two years after Tinubu began implementing the reforms, the haters of Nigeria’s progress are banding together to overthrow an administration that has been the most focused, most transformative in our history,” Onanuga wrote.
The comment comes at a time when many Nigerians are grappling with rising inflation, job losses, and high cost of living, all resulting from major government policies like the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira.
In 2022, Sanusi had warned Nigerians not to fall for campaign promises that avoided the harsh economic realities. He emphasized that whoever would fix the country’s economy must be prepared to take difficult and unpopular decisions.
“Anybody who tells you that it is going to be easy, please don’t vote for him. It is either he is lying to you or he doesn’t know what job he is going to do,” Sanusi said during the Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit.
He also recommended reform in key sectors like electricity and petroleum tariffs, and called for greater transparencyin the subsidy regime, demanding detailed verification of oil importation claims.
“They must give names of the ships that came, and we must verify if those ships were in Nigeria on that date… There must be proof before you pay the subsidy,” he had stated.
While public discontent continues to grow over the worsening economic conditions, the Presidency insists that the reforms are painful but necessary steps toward long-term economic recovery.
