Economist Writes Tinubu, Offers Ways Reforms Can Improve Nigerians’ Lives

Economist and former Executive Director of Energy Bank, Ghana, Isaac Monehin, has written to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, urging his administration to complement macroeconomic reforms with policies focused on improving household incomes and living conditions.

In the letter dated November 5, 2026, Monehin proposes a National Household Economic Recovery Programme to address food affordability, employment, electricity, social protection and access to credit.

Read the letter below:

5 November 2026

His Excellency,
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR
President and Commander-in-Chief
Federal Republic of Nigeria
Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Your Excellency,

FROM MACROECONOMIC STABILISATION TO HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC RECOVERY: AN URGENT CALL FOR ACTION TO PREVENT ECONOMIC DISCONTENT FROM BECOMING AN ELECTORAL LIABILITY

I write to draw your attention to what I consider the most consequential challenge confronting your administration at this stage of Nigeria’s economic reform journey: ensuring that the gains from macroeconomic stabilisation translate visibly and sustainably into improved living conditions for ordinary Nigerians.

Your administration deserves recognition for undertaking difficult but necessary reforms, particularly the removal of petrol subsidies, exchange-rate reforms, improved revenue mobilisation and efforts to restore macroeconomic stability. There are encouraging indications that these interventions are beginning to yield results in economic growth, government revenues and the broader investment environment.

However, there remains a significant disconnect between macroeconomic progress and household economic recovery.

For the ordinary Nigerian, economic success is not measured by GDP growth, foreign-exchange reserves or improved government revenues. It is measured by the ability to afford food, pay school fees, access healthcare, meet transportation costs and maintain a reasonable standard of living.

The central question is no longer simply whether the reforms are working, but whether Nigerians are beginning to feel their benefits.

THE POLITICAL WARNING FROM AMERICA

Your Excellency, the results of the November 3, 2026, midterm elections in the United States offer an important lesson.

The Democrats’ sweeping electoral victories, including their capture of both chambers of Congress, underscore the political consequences of widespread dissatisfaction with the cost of living and economic conditions.

The lesson for Nigeria is clear: voters ultimately judge governments by their lived experiences, not merely by official economic statistics or the intentions behind government policies.

As the 2027 general elections approach, your administration must not assume that Nigerians will indefinitely tolerate economic hardship simply because the reforms are considered necessary.

Prolonged hardship, declining purchasing power and rising poverty could translate into public disillusionment, declining confidence and an electoral backlash against the ruling party.

This is a risk that can still be mitigated through timely and decisive action.

THE WAY FORWARD: A NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC RECOVERY PROGRAMME

I respectfully propose that your administration introduce a second phase of economic reforms, deliberately focused on translating macroeconomic gains into household welfare through a coordinated National Household Economic Recovery Programme (NHERP).

The programme should prioritise six areas:

1. Food affordability and agricultural productivity: Expand support for smallholder farmers through subsidised fertiliser, improved seedlings, mechanisation, affordable agricultural credit, irrigation, secure farming zones and improved storage and distribution infrastructure. The immediate objective should be increased food production and reduced food prices.
2. Targeted social protection: Strengthen social safety nets through transparent and independently verified cash transfers, transportation assistance, school feeding and affordable primary healthcare for vulnerable households.
3. Employment generation: Prioritise labour-intensive sectors such as agriculture, agro-processing, manufacturing, construction, solid minerals and digital services. Access to government incentives and financing should increasingly be linked to measurable job creation.
4. Reliable electricity: Accelerate investment in generation, transmission and distribution, while promoting embedded power generation, renewable energy and mini-grids. Reliable electricity is fundamental to reducing production costs, creating jobs and improving household welfare.
5. Support for domestic production and SMEs: Reduce the cost of doing business through improved infrastructure, affordable financing, streamlined taxation and regulatory processes. Nigerian products must become competitive in price and quality against imported alternatives.
6. Affordable credit and financial inclusion: Expand credit guarantees, development financing and working capital facilities for viable small businesses. Responsible consumer credit should also be encouraged to improve access to essential productive assets.

I further recommend a quarterly Household Economic Recovery Scorecard to monitor food prices, real household incomes, purchasing power, employment, poverty reduction, electricity access and the reach of social interventions.

FINANCING AND IMPLEMENTATION

The proposed interventions will require substantial resources. An indicative annual funding envelope of N7–10 trillion could be considered, subject to detailed costing, consolidation of existing programmes and available fiscal resources.

Funding should come principally from savings arising from subsidy reforms, improved revenue mobilisation, reduction of wasteful expenditure, budget reprioritisation, development-finance institutions and private-sector partnerships.

Implementation should be phased:

• First 100 days: Establish the programme, verify beneficiaries, commence targeted household support and accelerate agricultural interventions.
• Within 6–12 months: Demonstrate measurable improvements in food affordability, social protection, electricity access and SME financing.
• Within 12–24 months: Record significant increases in productive employment, agricultural output and household purchasing power.

I would suggest ambitious but measurable four-year targets, including lifting at least 10 million Nigerians out of poverty and facilitating five million productive jobs, supported by independently verified baseline data and annual performance milestones.

THE NEED FOR CITIZEN PATIENCE AND POLICY CONTINUITY

Your Excellency, while urging government to act decisively to alleviate hardship, I also believe Nigerians should be encouraged to demonstrate understanding and patience with the administration.

Economic reforms of this magnitude, particularly those correcting decades of structural distortions, cannot deliver their full benefits overnight. They require time, consistency, discipline and sustained political commitment.

Citizens must appreciate that abandoning necessary reforms or repeatedly reversing policy direction may prove more costly than the temporary discomfort associated with economic adjustment.

Disruptions to the reform process could undermine investor confidence, trigger capital flight, reverse emerging macroeconomic gains, disrupt business operations, increase uncertainty and result in further job losses.

Nigeria cannot afford another cycle of policy reversals and economic dislocation.

There is, therefore, a compelling national interest in allowing the current reform programme sufficient time and continuity to achieve its objectives and carry the reforms to their logical conclusion.

However, the appeal for patience must be matched by visible government responsiveness. Nigerians are more likely to support continuity when they see that their sacrifices are acknowledged and that tangible improvements in their living conditions are within reach.

The challenge is to build a national consensus around sustained economic reform, social protection and equitable distribution of the benefits of recovery.

A POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE

Your Excellency, I wish to emphasise that this proposal is not an argument for abandoning your reforms or returning indiscriminately to the old subsidy regime. Rather, it is a call for recalibrating priorities to ensure that macroeconomic stabilisation is complemented by household economic recovery.

The 2027 elections will inevitably subject your administration’s performance to the judgement of Nigerians. They will ask whether food is more affordable, incomes have improved, electricity is more reliable, jobs are available and poverty is declining.

The American midterm experience is a timely reminder that economic discontent can become a formidable electoral force, regardless of a government’s reform credentials.

The greatest political protection for your administration is not a more elaborate explanation of why the reforms are necessary, but demonstrable evidence that they are improving the lives of Nigerians.

History may remember you as the President who undertook difficult but necessary reforms to reposition the Nigerian economy. However, the ultimate measure of your legacy will be whether those reforms translated into reduced poverty, productive employment, greater prosperity and improved living standards.

I therefore respectfully urge you to direct the relevant ministries, departments and agencies to develop and implement a comprehensive National Household Economic Recovery Programme without delay.

There is still an opportunity to convert economic reform into household prosperity, household prosperity into public confidence, and public confidence into the sustained political mandate required to carry the reforms to their logical conclusion.

The time to act is now.

Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration and welcome back from your spiritual pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

God bless Nigeria!!!

Yours faithfully,

ISAAC MONEHIN
Akure, Nigeria.
monehinisaac@gmail.com Tel. 08039634479