Chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have defended President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms amid persistent hardship, arguing that the policies have laid the foundation for long-term prosperity and should be given time to deliver their expected benefits.
The President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, and a member of the House of Representatives representing Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency, Abdulmumin Jibrin, made the remarks on Tuesday at the presentation of the APC’s 2027 manifesto, titled From Reforms to Prosperity, in Abuja.
The party leaders urged Nigerians to support the administration ahead of the 2027 general elections, insisting that its economic policies and infrastructure investments were beginning to yield results.
Gbajabiamila acknowledged that the removal of the petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange system had placed considerable pressure on households. However, he maintained that Tinubu had made the right decision by implementing the reforms.
“Now, those decisions have placed real pressure on households. We must speak honestly about that experience, because the people living through it deserve to be heard, and nobody should have to pretend that it’s easy, that life is easy at the moment,” he said.
He argued that retaining the previous economic arrangements would have continued to undermine the country’s ability to invest in its future.
According to him, Tinubu chose to govern as a leader rather than a politician by taking difficult decisions whose benefits might not immediately translate into electoral gains.
“The difference between a politician and a leader is that whereas the politician thinks about the next election, a leader thinks about the next generation,” he said.
Gbajabiamila said the administration’s responsibility was now to ensure that the opportunities created by the reforms translated into tangible improvements in Nigerians’ living conditions.
He identified the Nigeria Education Loan Fund, tax reforms and the Electricity Act as policies designed to widen opportunities, reduce financial burdens and improve public services.
He added that the APC manifesto contained commitments to halve the number of out-of-school children by 2031, install an additional seven million electricity meters and expand health insurance coverage.
The Chief of Staff said the document would also require the government to publish specific targets, identify officials responsible for achieving them and regularly report progress to Nigerians.
“Citizens should be able to see where delivery is succeeding and where it is falling short,” he said.
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The presentation comes amid differing opinions among Nigerians, particularly in the North, over whether the Tinubu administration has adequately addressed the region’s development needs.
While some have accused the government of neglecting the North, others argue that it has made significant investments in infrastructure and other sectors across the region.
Jibrin dismissed claims that the North had been shortchanged, citing road construction and other development projects as evidence of the administration’s commitment to the region.
He said previous administrations, some of which spent between three and eight years in office, failed to complete major road projects, including the Abuja-Kaduna and Kaduna-Kano highways.
According to him, the Tinubu administration completed the Kaduna-Kano Road within three years and was expected to conclude the Abuja-Kaduna Road by November or December 2026.
“My brother here, in the Ministry of Works, also did a fantastic job in terms of infrastructure, particularly if I may be biased towards the northern part of the country, where some people claim we have been shortchanged. That is not true,” he said.
Jibrin also highlighted the Federal Government’s commitment to developing the Dawanau agricultural market in Kano State and the completion of the Maradi railway corridor, which he said passes through the market.
“These are all deliberate actions being taken by this administration,” he added.
On fiscal management, the lawmaker criticised the handling of Nigeria’s finances over the past 15 years, describing the country’s fiscal space as poorly managed and constrained.
He recalled that the national budget stood between N5tn and N6tn during his time in the National Assembly, arguing that the current administration had significantly expanded the country’s fiscal capacity.
“Today, courageously and boldly, we have expanded the budget to about N53tn. Yes, we have a deficit, but do not forget that our non-oil revenue, according to the figures I read yesterday from the National Bureau of Statistics, is projected to hit about N33tn,” he said.
Jibrin also defended the use of funds saved from petrol subsidy removal, arguing that state governments were now receiving significantly higher allocations from the Federation Account.
“I know very well that a state that used to receive an average of N6bn now goes home with about N40bn or N50bn. Yet, someone is still bound to ask what we are doing with the excess funds from subsidy removal,” he added.