Today, Wednesday, May 29, 2024, marks President Bola Tinubu’s one year in office, and Nigerians have had a mixed bag of experiences.
There have been a few bright spots and many events that Nigerians would want to forget quickly.
In his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, Tinubu wasted no time. He used just three words, “Subsidy is gone,” to set the template that has shaped the lives of Nigerians over the past 12 months.
TimesNow.com.ng presents the good, the ugly events, and the numbers that provide a snapshot of Nigerians’ lives under Tinubu.
Despite the challenges, the Nigerian economy under the Tinubu administration has shown signs of improvement, according to the most recent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
The NBS reported that the Nigerian economy grew by 2.98% (year-on-year) in real terms in the first quarter of 2024.
Before Tinubu came into power, Nigerian economic growth (GDP) stood at 2.31% in the first quarter of 2023.
Wale Edun, the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, in a recent address to journalists, said:
Another major win for the Tinubu administration was the payment of debts owed to foreign companies and banks.
In March, the Central Bank of Nigeria announced that it had successfully cleared all valid $7 billion foreign exchange backlogs owed to bank customers, which the previous administration left behind.
From his first day in office, Tinubu spoke about his plans to boost government revenue, especially in the non-oil segment.
He wasted no time appointing Taiwo Oyedele, one of the country’s best tax experts, to devise ways to boost non-oil revenue.
One year later, based on data from the Accountant General’s office, there is more money for federal, state, and local governments to share.
In March 2023, before Tinubu assumed office, the NBS reported that the total revenue shared by all three tiers of government stood at N860.04 billion.
The report said:
Fast-forward to February 2024. The latest allocation captured by the NBS showed that money to all tiers of government has now increased substantially to N2.07 trillion.
NBS provided a breakdown of the money as follows:
Another noteworthy development is the stock market’s bullish run during the last year of President Tinubu’s administration.
On the other hand, Nigerians have been plunged into more debt and economic misery.
