Before President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, a former presidential adviser, Reno Omokri, claimed that Nigeria was subsidizing the naira with staggering $1.5 billion annually, which he claimed was borrowed and “wastefully spent.”
Omokri explained that the funds used to artificially prop up the naira weren’t used to invest in important sectors like healthcare, education, or infrastructure when he spoke on Channels Television’s current affairs program Inside Sources, which aired on Sunday.
The naira was being subordinated by the Federal Government of Nigeria, which spent $1.5 billion each month. Please accept the fact that I’m lying and go back and verify that I receive $1.5 billion each month in funding the naira. And we didn’t have any money for it. We were taking out this sum of money.
We didn’t spend $1. 5 billion each month on roads, education, and healthcare. He claimed that we were using it to pay for the naira.
He claimed that the subsidies were causing unsustainable consumption patterns, including those involving imported luxury goods.
We were importing human hair for our women, and we were spending $200 million annually. According to Omokri, we were spending $ 75 million on French champagne and $ 25 million on Scotch whisky.
Naira Devaluation  ,
Omokri defended President Tinubu’s decision to float the naira, saying that the current exchange rate, which trades at over $1,500 per dollar, accurately represents its true value without interference from the government.
The naira is now 1 1 560 to the dollar, not because Bola Tinubu was a bad president, the statement goes. No. He claimed that because he stopped subsidizing it and started floating the naira.
The naira was not properly valued under previous administrations, including that of former president Muhammadu Buhari and when he served under former president Goodluck Jonathan, he continued.
When the naira was between $1 and $1, I served as the president’s spokesman. The naira was then being supported. What you were seeing as a Nigerian wasn’t the real value, Omokri claimed.
Omokri praised Tinubu’s fiscal and trade reforms, noting that they have had the same impact as a trade surplus and a reduction in the national debt.
The debt profile for President Tinubu was $ 108 billion. Our current debt is $94 billion. It has decreased by $14 billion. Therefore, it is impossible to describe someone like that as a debtor. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, he stated, has far outperformed the expectations of most honest Nigerians.
He has increased our trade surplus, he claims. Prior to this, we didn’t even have a trade surplus. Nigeria was the top importer of gasoline in Africa when this man arrived. We are not at this time. We are now largely overtaken by South Africa. He claimed that we are now West Africa’s top exporter of gasoline.
Hardship still exists in the land, but Nigeria is not wealthy.
Omokri acknowledged the suffering but insisted that it was a necessary sacrifice for long-term stability when asked whether the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms had increased the hardship faced by regular Nigerians.
There is still a lot of suffering in the land, the author writes. Nigeria is not wealthy. Therefore, you can’t complain and say, “Well, I’m suffering,” if your father is not wealthy and you are. No. Your father is not wealthy. He claimed that Nigeria is a resource-poor nation.
He added that the president’s decision to float the naira has begun to benefit the local economy’s structurally.
President Bola Tinubu did what was successful in Vietnam, which is the reason why we now have a trade surplus. He has inflated the price of imports, leaving Nigerians with no choice but to purchase products made there.
