Lagos, Nigeria – Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, criticised the economic policies of the President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, on Sunday, April 19, 2026, following a report by the International Monetary Fund that downgraded the country’s economic growth forecast.
Okay News reports that Abubakar issued a statement through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, describing the current economic situation as organised hardship dressed up as reform.
Abubakar stated that citizens are facing rising living costs, soaring food prices, exchange rate instability, and a depreciating currency despite rising global oil prices. “At the grassroots, the story is even more brutal,” Abubakar said. “Parents are pulling children out of school because education is now a luxury. Farmers are abandoning their lands out of fear of violence.”
He added that the business climate is suffocating small enterprises and that the country’s debt profile is increasing without visible improvement in citizens’ lives. “Young people roam the streets, degrees in hand, but hope in short supply. Small businesses are folding up like a pack of cards under the weight of electricity tariffs, taxes, and a suffocating business climate,” Abubakar said.
The criticism follows the release of the April 2026 Global Financial Stability Report by the International Monetary Fund, which downgraded Nigeria’s 2026 growth forecast to 4.1 per cent. The Chief of the International Monetary Fund Research Department’s World Economic Studies Division, Denz Igan, attributed the downgrade to competing pressures on the economy.
