The Makinde-Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation (MDPCO) has challenged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to stop taking credit for the naira’s reported recovery and accept responsibility for the economic hardship Nigerians have experienced under his administration.
The organisation, which is backing the presidential ambition of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) candidate, Engr. Seyi Makinde, accused the President of presenting the improved exchange rate as a major achievement while millions of Nigerians continue to struggle with the rising cost of living.
In a statement issued on Sunday by its Director of Strategic Communications, Richard Nnanna Ihediwa, the campaign organisation described Tinubu’s recent comments on the economy as an attempt to rewrite Nigeria’s economic experience since 2023.
It particularly faulted the President’s claim that Nigerians would have needed wheelbarrows to buy ordinary food items without his administration’s intervention, describing the remark as a distortion of the economic realities faced by citizens.
The MDPCO recalled that Tinubu inherited an official exchange rate of about N461 to the dollar when he assumed office on May 29, 2023, but argued that the removal of petrol subsidy and unification of the foreign exchange market were followed by a sharp depreciation of the naira.
According to the organisation, the naira subsequently weakened to nearly N2,000 to the dollar at its lowest levels, triggering increases in the prices of food, transportation, housing and essential services.
It questioned the President’s presentation of an exchange rate of about N1,340 to the dollar as evidence of economic recovery, insisting that improved currency performance should translate into better living conditions for Nigerians.
“The real test of economic recovery is whether Nigerians can afford to live better, not simply whether the naira can exchange for more dollars now than when he plunged it into the abyss,” the statement said.
The campaign organisation also expressed concern over poverty, infrastructure deficits and rising public debt, alleging that about 140 million Nigerians, representing 63 per cent of the population, live in poverty.
It further estimated the country’s infrastructure deficit at $2.3 trillion and put public debt at N166.7 trillion, which it partly attributed to increased government borrowing.
The MDPCO urged Tinubu to acknowledge the economic difficulties facing Nigerians instead of presenting his administration as the solution to challenges it claimed were worsened by government policies.
“A President seeking re-election must defend his actual record, not campaign on falsehood and imaginary heroism,” it stated.
The organisation said Nigeria needed a fundamental economic reset, presenting Makinde’s RESET Nigeria Agenda as an alternative approach to addressing the country’s economic challenges.
According to the campaign group, the proposed agenda is built around three principles: “Stop the Loss, Recover Value and Build Systems That Prevent Failures.”
It explained that the framework would focus on ensuring that increased oil revenues translate into improved living standards rather than further government borrowing.
The organisation identified affordable energy, reliable electricity, domestic refining, agricultural security, manufacturing, investment and job creation as major priorities of the proposed economic programme.
It also advocated transparent management of oil revenues, stressing that the country’s natural resources should deliver tangible benefits to citizens.
The MDPCO said the 2027 general election would offer Nigerians an opportunity to decide between continuing with the present economic direction and embracing what it described as a new approach centred on productivity, citizens’ welfare and national prosperity.
It therefore urged Nigerians to support Makinde’s RESET Nigeria Agenda while calling on President Tinubu to acknowledge what it described as the shortcomings of his administration.
“Stop ridiculing yourself with your hollow campaign rhetoric,” the organisation added.
