KEY POINTS
- Nigerians are outraged after World Bank calls for 10 to 15 more years of economic hardship.
- If President Tinubu continues with the reforms, experts have warned of an implosion.
- Long term promises are not welcomed; citizens want policies that solve today’s hunger and poverty.
Nigerians have vociferously condemned the World Bank’s call for the country to continue the latest round of its economic reforms for another 10 to 15 years and have warned President Bola Tinubu that the public’s patience will soon run out over the current state of hardship.
In response, Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s Senior Vice President, recommended that Nigeria must continue on the path of reform to attain transformational results, but people across sectors have come out in outrage and labeled the recommendation out of touch with Nigeria’s immediate reality.
Speaking at the Nigeria Economic Summit on October 15, 2024, Gill noted that while reforms were tough on elites and on ordinary citizens, the latter were bearing the brunt of the pain – and encouraged the government to keep going.
But as Nigerians call on Tinubu to reject the advice, they point to a long history of failed economic reforms dictated by international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF.
If hardship continues, experts warn of national unrest
The economic hardship was warned would continue by Professor Moses Ochonu, a Nigerian academic and historian, whose concerns were that the problems out there could result in social upheaval.
“The World Bank’s 10-15 year timeline of sustained hardship is humanly impossible to bear,” he warned. According to Ochonu the World Bank has a record of imposing harmful economic reforms on developing countries that benefit elites but impoverish ordinary citizens.
ActionAid Nigeria says it is dismayed over the advice, describing it as ‘inhumane and unacceptable’ especially in the absence of compensatory mechanisms for Nigerians hit by rising inflation and the removal of fuel subsidies.
But Andrew Mamedu, Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, said it is ‘an affront to the dignity of Nigerians’ to ask them to suffer 15 more years in the name of reforms that have historically failed.
Nigerians want action and not promises in long terms
The World Bank’s history of advising policies that do not deliver promised economic growth has drawn censure from several activists and experts. Niger Delta activist Zik Gbemre dismissed the suggestion as a “conspiracy to hold Nigeria in permanent bondage.”
Professor Sebastian Uremadu of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia, agreed, saying the reforms were elitist and retrogressive, having inflicted pain on ordinary Nigerians, without yielding any benefits.
On the other hand, the Convener of the South-South Reawakening Group, Elder Joseph Ambakederimo, insisted that Nigerians should continue with the reforms because the country needed to bear short term pain for long term gain.
According to Vanguard, Nigerians in different sectors have asked the government to prioritize solutions to hunger, poverty and unemployment as the economy deteriorates rather than following the World Bank’s long term reform plan.
