Adewole Adebayo on Tinubu’s economic reforms says the President stabilised a fragile economy left behind by Buhari but has yet to find its true ailment
Adewole Adebayo on Tinubu’s economic reforms has stirred conversation after the Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 elections commended President Bola Tinubu for stabilising Nigeria’s economy, while also cautioning that deeper issues remain unresolved.
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Speaking on Politics Today aired on Channels Television Tuesday evening, Adebayo likened the economy inherited from former President Muhammadu Buhari to a patient in critical condition.
“It’s obvious that the economy that President Buhari left was a poorly managed economy, and was an emergency room patient,” he said.
According to Adewole Adebayo on Tinubu’s economic reforms, the current administration has prevented the total collapse of the economy but has yet to diagnose its core problems.
“What President Tinubu has done is to stabilise the patient, but I’m not sure that he has managed to know the ailment.
So the patient is not going to die imminently, but he hasn’t found a cure,” he remarked.
He argued that while President Tinubu has had minor wins in select sectors, these have not amounted to a full understanding or resolution of Nigeria’s underlying economic challenges.
Some policies, Adebayo noted, may have even worsened the situation in the short term.
“As an emergency room doctor, he is taking some steps, some of it actually aggravated the case of the patient,” he said.
“But over time, he appears to have one or two wins in two sectors.”
The SDP leader further described Tinubu as “a well-known tax collector,” referencing both his time in Lagos and his recent drive to overhaul federal taxation.
“Everybody knows that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a well-known tax collector. He did tax collection in Lagos and he came to do tax collection in Abuja,” Adebayo said.
President Tinubu’s tax reforms, signed into law in June 2025, aim to simplify tax collection, reduce burdens on low-income earners, and improve efficiency.
The laws are expected to come into effect in January 2026.
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Adebayo’s comments present a balanced critique, acknowledging Tinubu’s early stabilisation efforts while urging a more profound strategy to fully revive the economy.
