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Nothing to celebrate! Okonjo-Iweala’s comments not endorsement – ADC
It is dishonesty, for All Progressives Congress (APC) government of President Bola Tinubu, and its foot-soldiers to go to town, trumpeting that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), has fully endorsed the manner Nigeria is currently being run.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC), while weighing in on the comments made on Thursday, by the WTO boss, shortly after a private meeting with Tinubu at the State House in Abuja, accused the government of cherry-picking the issue by choosing instead to celebrate the headlines instead of the actual content of the comments.
Okonjo-Iweala, former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, who acknowledged the government’s efforts in “stabilising” the nation’s economy, stressed that what was remaining was to ensure growth and to create social safety nets to mitigate the suffering being experienced by Nigerians at the receiving end of its policy reforms.
She said: “The President and his team have worked hard to stabilise the economy. The reforms have been in the right direction. The next step is growth, and alongside that, building social safety nets so those feeling the pinch of reforms can get support.”
Against the backdrop of the general interpretation being given to the comment as a full endorsement of the Tinubu’s running of the country, the party which conveyed its pushback through Bolaji Abdullahi, its spokesman, accused the government of seeking validation rather than focusing on the job at hand.
The full statement read: “Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s recent comments on President Tinubu and the Nigerian economy have been seized upon by government officials and their media allies as if their scandalous implementation of hard reforms — which have condemned the majority of Nigerians to absolute poverty and destroyed millions of jobs — had received endorsement by the oracle herself. This is not correct.
“Dr Okonjo-Iweala knows that a stable economy is one that is growing in real terms, led by jobs and productivity. She knows that a stable economy is one that is able to guarantee minimum standards of living for the people. She knows that economic stability that leaves the majority in grinding poverty is meaningless.
“Therefore, what she’s really saying — which the government has chosen to ignore — is that the economy is not growing, jobs are not being created, and too many people are suffering as a direct consequence of President Tinubu’s ill-conceived and badly implemented reforms. These are the issues she wanted the government to address.
“Like the international stateswoman that she is, Dr Okonjo-Iweala prefaced her comments with the niceties befitting her stature by commending the administration for ‘stabilising the economy’. But, having done with that courtesy, she immediately highlighted the urgent need for job creation to bring succour to the ever-growing army of unemployed youths and others who lost their jobs as businesses shut down under the crushing weight of the Tinubu-led government.
“She said the government needs to urgently grow the economy to put money in people’s pockets — which means that whatever ‘stable economy’ the government is celebrating has not translated into real relief for millions of Nigerian families, and they need to change course.
“For the record, the economy is not performing in a way that could justify such selective optimism. GDP growth in Q1 2025 was 3.13 percent, and Q2 registered barely over 3 percent — a sluggish pace that fails to meet the expectation of broad-based expansion.
“Forecasts for the year hover between 3.0 percent and 3.4 percent, far from the robust rebound the administration envisioned. Headline inflation remains unyielding, sitting at 22.22 percent as of June, with food inflation at 21.97 percent, meaning that millions of Nigerians are paying more, not less.
“Petrol prices now average ₦1,037.66 per litre, still a significant burden on households and small businesses. The naira trades at around ₦1,530 to the dollar — drastically weaker than President Tinubu’s pre-reform levels of ₦460 — eroding purchasing power across the board.
“In fact, it is the Tinubu administration’s policy choices — fuel subsidy removal, naira devaluation, tariff hikes on electricity and transport — that have triggered this distress and made social safety nets not optional but essential. Yet these programmes have either been administered haphazardly, suspended, or had negligible impact.
“Every well-meaning Nigerian knows that celebrating the mere appearance of ‘stability’ is not only pyrrhic but also dangerous. This is why we believe Dr Okonjo-Iweala tweeted a clarification this afternoon, noting that Nigerians are experiencing hardship from President Tinubu’s reforms, and that putting in place more programmes to help especially the poor and vulnerable manage this hardship is very important. She further stressed that ‘At the same time, it is necessary to start work on growing the economy to create more jobs and put money in people’s pockets.’
“It is in this regard that the ADC strongly believes such candour from a global economic leader like Dr Okonjo-Iweala underscores the urgent need for federal government policies that go beyond rhetoric and propaganda, but instead address the daily harsh realities of millions of Nigerians under the APC.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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