A graduate of the humanities believing he understands the wealth of a nation better than Dr. Ngozi Iweala is delusion taken too far. It is not just because she is a practising economist with impeccable credentials, but because she also brings unquestionable, off-classroom experience to back it up. What you offer in countering her is merely democracy at work—the democracy of public opinion, not superiority of knowledge.
There is nothing the Tinubu government has done in rescuing the economy that any government with honest intentions would have approached differently in re-ordering our macroeconomic structures, which for so long stood on shaky foundations. This does not mean that there is no more work to be done—even Dr. Iweala herself admitted as much.
Whether in unifying exchange rates or removing fuel subsidies, the decisions to end round-tripping and subsidy scams were inevitable. Any politician who claims he would have done otherwise is merely pandering to populist sentiments.
The real challenge ahead is ensuring that the dividends of these reforms trickle down to the masses and bolster microeconomic growth, and this was never lost in Iweala’s assessment. For several months now, the exchange rate has been relatively stable, and that is a strong signal.
For instance, as of August 2025, Nigeria’s stock market has recorded a 45 per cent surge in market capitalisation and a 40.5 per cent rise in the All-Share Index, driven by strong gains across banking, insurance, food, and cement sectors, alongside renewed investor confidence and policy reforms. This is the macroeconomic stability she was referring to.