ActionAid Nigeria, AAN, has said the advice by the World Bank Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Mr. Indermit Gill, urging the President Tinubu to sustain its current economic reforms for the next 10-15 years is inhuman and unacceptable.

In a reaction by its Country Director, Andrew Mamedu, said: “The recent statement made by the World Bank Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Mr. Indermit Gill at the 30th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES30) in Abuja urging the Nigerian government to sustain its current economic reforms for the next 10-15 years with no clear plans on how it will cater for the people is misguided and insulting to the millions of Nigerians living through unprecedented economic hardship.

This call assumes that continuity and persistence in these policies will yield transformative results, but the evidence tells otherwise. While long-term reform is important, the strategies proposed by the World Bank seem disconnected from the immediate socio-economic realities of Nigeria, especially regarding poverty, weak institutional capacity, and structural economic deficiencies. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been deeply involved in Nigeria’s economy for decades, pushing policies that have done far more harm than good.

The Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) introduced in the late 1980s remains one of the most devastating legacies of this relationship. It crippled our local industries, especially the textile sector, and opened the floodgates for Nigeria to become heavily dependent on imported goods. Before the SAP, Nigeria’s textile industry was a vibrant hub employing hundreds of thousands of workers.

While the World Bank celebrates the unification of Nigeria’s exchange rate as the most effective in 20 years, it has led to severe hardship for citizens, driving inflation to a 28-year high. Additionally, the sudden removal of fuel subsidies without robust compensatory mechanisms has further eroded household incomes. These reforms disproportionately affect Nigeria’s poorest, pushing the country deeper into poverty while global financial institutions and foreign investors reap the benefits of Nigeria’s open economy.

“It is not only unacceptable but inhumane to ask Nigerians to endure 15 more years of suffering in the name of reforms that have historically failed us.

READ ALSO: Man jumps into Lagos canal to evade arrest, dies

NNPC-CNL makes oil ‘discovery’ at PML 49

LASU produces First-class graduate in History

Millions of Nigerians can barely afford food, fuel, or basic services today. Asking them to wait for over a decade for things to get better is an affront to their dignity and a reckless gamble with the nation’s future. The question is, how many Nigerians will be alive till then to reap the benefits of these reforms, what does the future hold for our children who are currently feeling the brunt of the hardship, will there still be hope for them in 15 years’ time?

“Nigerians cannot and will not wait for 15 years for economic policies that will continually inflict hardship. The people of this nation deserve urgent action, not promises of long-term recovery. Every passing day under the weight of these reforms pushes more citizens into extreme poverty and despair.

“We demand that the government rethinks its blind allegiance to the World Bank’s economic blueprint and starts prioritizing the welfare of its people.

“The government must reject the idea that growth must come at the expense of human lives and begin to invest meaningfully in local industries, small businesses, and sustainable economic models that empower Nigerians rather than enslave them. The government must impartially fight one of the root causes of this hardship which is corruption starting with the NNPC as they are at the middle of corruption and responsible for the mismanagement of funds from recent reports of the $300 million ‘bailout funds collected from the Federal Government. Amongst all, accountability to the people must take precedence and reforms must be people-centered.”