A former President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN,) Okechukwu Unegbu, has posited that Nigerians are worse off under President Bola Tinubu’s administration than they were a little over three years ago.
He rated Tinubu’s economic performance at 20 percent, citing harsh economic realities Nigerians are currently grappling with due to his reforms.
According to him, the country’s 3.89 percent Gross Domestic Product growth rate cannot be traced to the marketplace and in the lives of Nigerians.
“I will rate him only 20 percent because despite the so-called GDP that has risen, you cannot trace that to the marketplace,” he reportedly said on Monday.
Unegbu traced the genesis of Nigeria’s economic woes to May 2023 when Tinubu came into office, and yanked off subsidy on fuel, which automatically pushed prices of goods and services to the rooftop.
Specifically, Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy on May 29, 2023.
Nigeria’s fuel price increased by 463.03 percent to a minimum of N1,340 per liter on June 2, 2026, compared to the N238 per liter rate recorded three years before President Tinubu’s administration.
Reports said within the period under review, the price of fuel surged by N1,102 per liter.
Fuel subsidy removal, alongside Naira exchange rate liberalization, were the twin policies that pushed headline and food inflation to 15.69 and 16.09 percent in April 2026.
The immediate ripple effect was the astronomical rise in the prices of food, rent, transportation and cost of living for the majority of Nigerians.