Photo: Senator Abubakar Yusuf
By: Mandy Park
Former Senator representing Taraba Central, Abubakar Yusuf, has described the economic policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as ineffective, saying they have failed to deliver the expected relief to Nigerians.
Yusuf, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), made the remarks on Thursday during an appearance on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television.
Responding to a question on whether the administration’s economic reforms—popularly referred to as “Tinubunomics”—are yielding results, the former lawmaker said bluntly: “For me, it’s not working. I’m a member of the APC. I would be the last person to hide the facts.”
Yusuf, who served in the Senate from 2015 to 2023, acknowledged that the government may be implementing its policies with good intentions, but insisted that the overall framework is unsuitable for Nigeria’s current socio-economic realities.
“Within the policy framework, yes, they are doing their best, but it is not the framework that is suitable for Nigeria at the point in time that President Asiwaju came into power,” he said.
The former senator took particular exception to the immediate removal of petrol subsidy on the day President Tinubu was inaugurated in May 2023.
He argued that the move lacked adequate preparation, consultation and cushioning mechanisms for vulnerable Nigerians.
“I am one of those who say President Asiwaju ought to have waited… not on the day he was sworn in to say ‘subsidy is gone’. On what basis?” Yusuf queried.
He maintained that major fiscal decisions of such magnitude should be preceded by consultations with cabinet members, economic advisers and relevant stakeholders.
“What they are saying is subsidy is corruption and what have you. Sit down with your cabinet, sit down with your ministers, sit down with your advisers,” he said.
The removal of subsidy, alongside the unification of the foreign exchange market, has been defended by the Federal Government as necessary reforms to stabilise the economy.
However, the policies have also coincided with rising inflation, increased cost of living and pressure on household incomes.
Beyond the subsidy issue, Yusuf criticised what he described as structural weaknesses in Nigeria’s budgeting system, particularly the “envelope system” of budget preparation.
“One of the basic problems is that before you budget, you should have a plan. The envelope system we’ve been operating has been you budget before you plan, so that has been a major issue,” he said.
According to him, allocating fixed budgetary ceilings to ministries and agencies without strict alignment to development blueprints undermines effective implementation.
“If you give me an envelope which is contrary to my plan, you know whether it is plus or minus, then you know there’s no way I’m going to implement my plan, and therefore it is bound to fail,” Yusuf stated.
He reiterated his long-standing opposition to the envelope budgeting system, saying it should be scrapped.
“I agree, yes. I have always said it, even when I was in the Senate, I think we should jettison the envelope system. It is not good for us; it’s not going to work well for us,” he added.
Yusuf also lamented what he described as chronic underperformance in capital budget implementation, blaming weak revenue generation, poor fund releases and reliance on deficit financing.
“We could not meet 60 per cent of our capital budget in all these years — no releases. It’s not working, it has not really worked,” he said.
He argued that without a practical and adequate funding strategy, budget execution would continue to suffer.
“When you make a budget and you do not have a practical or adequate way of releasing money for the projects, because the release too has been a major, major problem, if you make a budget and the release is very, very poor, there is no way the budget will be executed,” he noted.
The former senator further criticised the persistent use of deficit financing, insisting that Nigeria’s budgets should ideally be structured towards surplus to drive sustainable development.
“Our budget ought to have been a surplus budget, but all our budgets have always been deficit financing budgets,” Yusuf said.
His comments come amid ongoing debates within political and economic circles over the impact of the Tinubu administration’s reform agenda, as Nigerians continue to grapple with high inflation, currency volatility and rising living costs.
