It is a heinous crime to humanity no doubt. In ordered climes, he would be in jail already for vicarious economic malfeasance. Or at the least, he would be hounded into a one-way exile, never to return to the land he desecrated and abused exceedingly.
Olawale Edun was Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy from June 2023 up until last April. He was fired recently after he supervised what has turned out to be a near-genocidal reform.
In less than three years, Edun working in cahoots with his boss, President Bola Tinubu drove 60 million Nigerians into abject poverty and the outer margins of existence.
Now, that’s not a sound byte or a guess work. That’s World Bank report year on year which revealed that no fewer than 60 million Nigerians, which is approximately one-third of the population of Western Europe has been trashed in the dungeon of poverty – in record time too.
Just last July, the World Bank reported that over 70% of Nigerians remain poor despite reforms of the government.
The World Food Programme have reported that poverty remains especially acute in the nine northern states of Nigeria where more than 17 million face catastrophic levels of hunger and deprivation. WFP says it’s the worst food crisis situation in a decade.
The World Bank’s latest comprehensive report published late last year stated that Nigerians living below poverty line climbed from 56% in 2023 to 63% by 2025/2026. This pushed the total number of poor Nigerians from about 87 – 90 to around 139 – 140 million people.
Verdict: Over 60 million people have become ultra poor or food insecure in just three years.
These numbers will surely make it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest and most malevolent trashing of any population in the modern history of mankind.
Yet, we have not considered Nigerians who have died out of extreme despair. Mental health cases which have surged by about 20% recently. It is reportedly exacerbated by anxiety and depression. Then, the recent exponential suicide cases largely caused by escalating poverty and loss of dignity.
How did Edun and his confederates achieve this dark feat?
It was so simple, so speedy and so fluid that both the perpetrators and even the victims still can’t fathom what hit them. Indeed, very few Nigerians seem to be able to understand the magnitude of this socio-economic ‘pogrom.’
To buttress this point, the government of President Tinubu which is behind this ‘genocide’ is not only still in power, the president has picked up a form, bristling to contest for another term. As if all was well.
And one wonders, what will he tell the horde of 60 million people and the rest of the population? If one-fourth of the people in a country could be pauperised in three years, the entire population would be decimated by the end of a second term of eight years.
Again, how did they do it? Let’s call it an act of genocidal incompetence. The president is obviously not capable of connecting the dots between cause and effect in economic policies. But it is basic economics that if you yank off a safety net (subsidy) that has helped the population maintain some balance over the years, there’s bound to be a serious disequilibrium.
By the same token, if you float your currency and subject it to free market forces, it will immediately lose value against currencies of bigger economies with established productive bases.
The antidote to subsidy removal is to vastly improve wages, and for floating the currency, ramp up the productive base focusing especially on export to earn more forex.
President Tinubu and his cabinet didn’t do any of these. Instead, the administration added fuel to a raging fire by initiating a gung-ho tax regime.
So in addition to about 500% sudden and unprecedented rise in fuel price, other essential commodities like cooking gas price, VAT, electricity tariff, port levies, everything taxable have been taxed heavily.
Yet, Nigeria’ s economy remains largely hinged upon crude oil export, unbridled importation of all manner of products including staple food items and furniture.
Why discard Buhari’s model
In addition to resisting pressure from the West to jettison petrol subsidy and devalue the naira, former President Mohammadu Buhari also had a list of over 40 products barred from official forex allocation for importation.
But under Tinubu, the floodgates were broken; all safety nets were torn down. Not a thought was spared for the already sinking populace threatened by multidimensional poverty. Was it a lack of empathy or knowledge or even both?
Shorn of basic economics
If President Tinubu lacks understanding of basic economics and is bereft of empathy, what about the Minister who is charged with oversight and coordination of the economy? He is supposedly the expert and he is liable to partly bear the brunt of any policy mishap.
As Finance Minister, he is supposed to advise and guide his boss through the dynamics of various economic policies.
But as it turned out, not only did he fail to lead thought at the critical moments, he also was unable to carry out basic duties of his office. For instance, for three years, he couldn’t implement the annual Appropriation Act.
From 2023 till date, the federal budget have continued to overlap and run concurrently.
It came out last year that capital expenditure were not released in most cases. This made most of the MDAs to remain non-functional and comatose. Poor as Buhari era was, the budget cycle was normalise and the rendition was prompt.
The result is the untold confusion and total lack of accountability in Edun’s budgeting system all through his tenure.
The Tinubu-Edun combo also bedeviled the country with insatiable hunger for debt. In three years, Tinubu borrowed more than any other president. This is a period of huge resources from fuel subsidy removal, forex arbitrage and unprecedented taxes.
The obverse is that debt service has become a huge burden to the economy at about 27% of the 2026 budget (N15.52 trillion). This is obviously not sustainable. Nigeria borrows to service debt.
Where’s all the money gone?
The situation becomes very traumatic for the populace as the economy is awash with cash yet no value is created.
Infrastructure situations get worse. Some new roads are being constructed but existing amenities like roads, hospitals, schools, among others are not prioritised. Electricity supply is worse than three years ago and the nation’s refineries continue to guzzle billions in revenues without producing a drop of fuel and without a solution in sight.
Shouldn’t Edun apologise to Nigerians?
Upon his appointment, this column warned that Edun was a misfit for such a commanding portfolio. Though he was once a commissioner for Finance in Lagos State, he didn’t have enough grounding and exposure. Same with his successor, Mr Taiwo Oyedele; he’s a mere tax collector like the biblical Zaccheus! He doesn’t understand the ramifications of a manager of the economy.
Both Edun and Oyedele were mere bag-handlers for their boss. And there lies the real problem: the president doesn’t pick his cabinet based on merit but largely on nepotistic considerations.
One of such misfits is the minister of information and national orientation, a certain Mohammed Idris who hardly informs the nation. He insists President Tinubu is laying a strong foundation for long-term prosperity. And we say, with 60 million Nigerians ploughed into the foundation, the building would probably require a hundred million heads to finally accomplish. A reform is supposed to lift people from the morass poverty, it doesn’t sink them deeper. Plus the fact that corruption is now unprecedented in Nigeria today.
It is a long, sad story but the least Mr Olawale Edun would have to do now is to tender a public apology to the hapless Nigerians he has immiserated. He is not allowed to walk away from this criminality so coolly as if Nigerian lives don’t matter.
Last line: Tinubu, time go…
President Bola Tinubu returned to Nigeria Wednesday evening after his so-called working visit to Europe.
Originally proposed to last 21 days, it extended to almost one month.
Apart from the indignity of a sovereign being holed up in another country for so long, the likelihood that Tinubu was in an extended medical trip was apparent.
For instance, the world saw Nigeria’s president being propped by his French host in the few photographs that emanated from the trip.
The President looked more frail and frazzled than when he left Nigeria’s shores.
Also remarkable, the president of the most important black nation can’t address the UNGA, he can’t grant a live interview, not to mention attempt a presidential debate…
But particularly worrisome is that Nigeria’s president may be a persona non grata in the US for narcotics related matters.
Therefore, many are asking, isn’t it time President Tinubu called it quits honourably, take a deserved break and allow Nigeria a breath of fresh air?
