KEY POINTS
-
Nigeria resilient despite Trump’s tariffs on exports.
-
Tinubu cites reforms, fiscal strength, and non-oil growth.
-
Agricultural reforms aim to secure food and fight poverty.
Nigeria will not bow to mounting tariff pressures from Washington, President Bola Tinubu said Tuesday, declaring that his administration has no fear of U.S. trade policies under President Donald Trump. Tinubu, speaking at the Presidential Villa in Abuja while receiving members of The Buhari Organisation led by Senator Tanko Almakura, stressed that Nigeria’s economic reforms and rising non-oil revenues were acting as buffers against global headwinds.
He pointed to improved fiscal performance and a stronger naira as evidence that Nigeria remains resilient in the face of Trump’s tariffs. “If non-oil revenue is growing, then we have no fear of whatever Trump is doing on the other side,” Tinubu said, noting that Nigeria had already surpassed its 2025 revenue target by August. The naira has appreciated to about N1,450 per dollar, from N1,900 in May 2023, when Tinubu unified the country’s exchange rates.
Nigeria resilient despite Trump’s tariffs
Trump’s second-term trade policies have reshaped global commerce, with the U.S. introducing a 10 percent baseline tariff on nearly all imports. Nigeria has been hit with a 15 percent tariff on its exports since August 7, up from the initial 14 percent imposed in April. Energy products, including oil and gas, were exempted from the tariff regime, but global energy markets have still felt the ripple effect, with trade tensions dampening flows of crude oil, gasoline, and diesel.
Tinubu argued that Nigeria’s fiscal and agricultural reforms would mitigate the impact. He highlighted a sweeping mechanisation programme aimed at bolstering food security, declaring: “If we remove hunger, we have defeated poverty.”
Political reflections and party consolidation
Away from trade policy, Tinubu reminisced on the formative years of the All Progressives Congress. He recounted his clashes with the late former President Muhammadu Buhari over the APC’s logo during merger talks in 2013, joking that Buhari had insisted on a parliamentary symbol while he fought for the broom. “He’s so stubborn,” Tinubu said, drawing laughter.
According to Punch, the meeting also gathered northern APC leaders, including Katsina Governor Dikko Radda and former Governor Aminu Masari, in what observers see as an early move to strengthen the party ahead of the 2027 elections. The APC, formed from the merger of four opposition groups in 2013, went on to end the dominance of the People’s Democratic Party in 2015, elevating Buhari to the presidency. Tinubu, who played a pivotal role in that merger, now seeks to project the same message of resilience in both politics and the economy.
