Fiscal Policy Chief Oyedele: ‘Ending Subsidies Was Essential; The Toughest Times Are Over’

Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, has expressed optimism that Nigeria’s ongoing economic reforms under the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration are already bearing fruit.

Speaking at The Platform, an annual forum hosted by Covenant Nation on Saturday, Oyedele made a compelling case for why the reforms—though painful—are essential to the country’s long-term survival.

Oyedele didn’t mince words about the controversial removal of the petrol subsidy, calling it “the best decision we’ve ever made as a country.”A

He said that Nigeria had been living in a financial bubble, with artificially low costs for petrol, foreign exchange, and electricity masking deeper economic problems.

“We were living on window-dressed realities. Two years ago, the naira exchange rate was supposedly ₦450, but was it really? Petrol was under ₦200 per litre, but that was a lie. We were paying for these subsidies by borrowing—and at high interest rates,” he explained.

Drawing a parallel to parenting, he said: “If I can afford to send my kids to a school that charges ₦200 million per term, that’s fine. But if I can’t, it’s irresponsible to enroll them there. The same applies to our economy. We were running a system we couldn’t afford.”

Oyedele painted a grim picture of Nigeria’s pre-reform economy, likening its trajectory to crises seen in Sri Lanka and Venezuela. He revealed that Nigeria had reached a point where every naira earned in revenue went solely to servicing debt, leaving the country to borrow for everything else, from paying salaries to fighting insurgencies.

“We printed close to ₦40 trillion just to keep the economy afloat,” Oyedele said. “And then we wondered why there was inflation.”

He added that Nigeria’s GDP growth rate over the past decade has been less than 10 percent—negative when adjusted for inflation.

Despite the hardships caused by subsidy removal and other reforms, Oyedele urged Nigerians to look at the bigger picture. “There’s nothing wrong with Nigeria; maybe there’s something wrong with its leadership. But the worst is behind us,” he said, urging citizens to adopt a more positive narrative about their country.

“Americans face mass shootings almost daily, but you’ll never hear them say, ‘May America never happen to you.’ Why do we say that about Nigeria? Let’s shift to, ‘May Nigeria work for me.’”