By Akin Samuel KAYODE
There is a painful question Nigerians must ask today: When did survival become this difficult in our own country? When did the ordinary worker begin receiving a salary that disappears almost immediately? When did parents begin choosing between food, transport, electricity, rent and school fees? When did borrowing to eat and asking others for help become normal? For millions of Nigerians, the economy is no longer an abstract subject discussed by economists; it is the daily struggle to survive with dignity.
Since President Bola Tinubu assumed office, Nigerians have endured some of the most painful economic adjustments in recent history. Fuel subsidy removal, exchange rate reforms and other measures were presented as necessary steps to rescue the economy. Some reforms may indeed have been necessary, but Nigerians are entitled to ask a fundamental question: when does the sacrifice become too heavy, and when do the promised benefits begin to reach the people?
The consequences are impossible to ignore. Food has become increasingly difficult for many families to afford. Transport consumes a frightening share of workers’ earnings. Small businesses are squeezed by energy costs, expensive credit and weakened consumer demand. Farmers face rising production expenses, while young graduates confront an economy that struggles to provide opportunities commensurate with their aspirations. Behind every economic statistic is a human story, a parent cutting down meals, a worker walking farther to save transport money, a trader reducing stock, or a family postponing something essential because there is simply no money left.
We must nevertheless be intellectually honest. Nigeria did not acquire all its economic problems in 2023. The Tinubu administration inherited debt pressures, weak productive capacity, foreign exchange distortions and a costly subsidy regime. But inheritance cannot become an excuse for every outcome. Governments are judged by how they manage the problems they inherit, how they distribute the burden of reform and whether their policies improve the lives of citizens.
This is where the present administration deserves serious scrutiny. Economic performance cannot be judged only by government revenue, foreign reserves, capital inflows or other macroeconomic indicators. The most important economic indicator for the ordinary Nigerian is whether life is becoming more affordable and whether honest work can still provide a decent living. If a worker earns more naira but can afford less food, less transport and fewer necessities, then the improvement on paper has not yet become prosperity in the home.
Nigeria therefore needs to move beyond an economy that merely manages scarcity. We need an economy that produces wealth, creates employment and restores purchasing power. This is where Atiku Abubakar’s Economic Recovery Plan presents a different direction and deserves serious national consideration.
Atiku’s economic philosophy places production, private enterprise, investment and job creation at the centre of recovery. The argument is simple but fundamental: government cannot permanently lift Nigerians out of hardship through intervention alone. It must create an environment where farmers can produce profitably, manufacturers can expand, entrepreneurs can access capital, investors can operate with confidence and millions of Nigerians can earn sustainable incomes.
That is the crucial distinction. Nigeria should not simply make imported goods more expensive and ask citizens to endure; we should build the capacity to produce more of what Nigerians consume. We should not merely complain about unemployment; we should create the conditions that make businesses capable of employing people. We should not permanently manage the symptoms of poverty; we should attack the productive weaknesses that keep people poor.
Consider agriculture. A serious economic recovery should make farming a profitable business, not an occupation of last resort. That means irrigation, mechanisation, rural roads, storage, access to finance, security for farmers, agro-processing and reliable markets. When farmers produce more and earn more, food becomes more available, rural incomes rise and jobs are created across the agricultural value chain.
Consider manufacturing and small businesses. Nigeria cannot create mass prosperity if the people who produce, trade and employ others are constantly fighting high energy costs, expensive credit, unpredictable policies and multiple barriers to doing business. Atiku’s private-sector orientation offers a framework for changing that relationship: government should become an enabler of enterprise, not another obstacle standing between an entrepreneur and survival.
The same principle should guide the petroleum sector. Nigeria cannot forever remain a country that exports crude oil while importing refined petroleum products. Atiku’s latest economic proposals have argued for directing support towards domestic refining rather than perpetually subsidising imported fuel. The bigger principle is what matters: our natural resources should strengthen Nigerian production, Nigerian businesses and Nigerian households.
And then comes the Nigerian worker. What good is a salary increase if inflation immediately consumes it? What good is employment if transportation to work consumes a disproportionate part of the income? Economic recovery must therefore focus on real purchasing power, not merely nominal figures. Nigerians need an economy where wages can buy more, businesses can employ more and productive activity can generate genuine prosperity.
For Nigeria’s young population, this is even more urgent. We cannot continue producing graduates, entrepreneurs and skilled young people and then leave them to compete for too few opportunities. A serious recovery strategy must turn Nigeria’s youth population into a productive economic force through skills development, technology, entrepreneurship, agriculture, manufacturing and investment. A young Nigerian should not need a political connection to have a chance at a decent future.
This is why the 2027 choice should not be reduced to personalities, parties or slogans. It should be a choice between economic directions. Do we continue asking Nigerians to absorb enormous costs while waiting for promised future prosperity, or do we deliberately build an economy where production, jobs, investment and purchasing power are the foundations of recovery?
Nigerians are tired. They are tired of stretching salaries beyond their limits. Tired of watching the price of food rise faster than their income. Tired of businesses closing because operating costs have become unbearable. Tired of young people searching endlessly for opportunities. Tired of borrowing, begging and depending on the kindness of others simply to get through another month. Poverty should never become a permanent condition of citizenship.
Atiku’s task, therefore, is to present his Economic Recovery Plan not as another collection of political promises, but as a credible route from hardship to production, from unemployment to productive jobs, from import dependence to domestic capacity, and from shrinking purchasing power to economic dignity.
Nigeria does not need leadership that merely asks its people to endure. Nigerians need leadership that can create the conditions for them to work, produce, earn and prosper.
That is the economic choice before Nigeria in 2027: an economy of survival, where citizens struggle simply to get through each day, or an economy of opportunity, where hard work once again provides a pathway to dignity. Atiku must make the case that Nigeria can and must choose the latter.
Akin Samuel KAYODE.
Member, The Narrative Force.
30082027.
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