A founding member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Osita Okechukwu, has acknowledged that President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms have failed to deliver meaningful relief to Nigerians at the microeconomic level.
Okechukwu made the remarks during an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time on Tuesday, while noting that the reforms had performed well at the macroeconomic level.
He said the high cost of living, declining purchasing power and widespread unemployment continued to affect Nigerians despite the country’s large youth population.
The APC chieftain also explained that the depreciation of the naira had made it difficult for small and medium sized enterprises to import machinery, while rising energy costs had further constrained industrial growth.
“The economic reforms have done well at the macroeconomic level, but microeconomic indicators are very poor.
“When we talk about the purchasing power of the citizenry, the high cost of living and joblessness, the president’s economic reform programme has not helped.
“It didn’t help because the assumption in the neoliberal doctrine is that it will propel the private sector. However, there are indicators inhibiting that growth. Small-scale and medium-scale industries are performing poorly.
“When you float the naira, it becomes difficult for them to import machinery, and rising energy costs make it even more difficult. These are tangential to the reform programme,” Okechukwu said.
