What do you think when people call for fiscal discipline but it only seems to hurt ordinary Nigerians?
I say you cannot defend concessions for the powerful, tolerate waste in government, and then preach fiscal discipline only when ordinary Nigerians ask for relief from unbearable living costs. Fiscal responsibility that works only against the poor is not reform, it is cruelty dressed up in economic grammar. You do not experience the economy through FAAC figures or press conferences. You live it every time you enter a market, board a bus, pay school fees, buy medicine, or try to feed your family. More naira is not automatically more prosperity.
Where this comes from
Article on X Article by @atiku on X · https://x.com/atiku/status/2097745799593841116 2026-09-09 ›
“You cannot defend concessions for the powerful, tolerate waste within government and then suddenly become an apostle of fiscal discipline when ordinary Nigerians ask for relief from unbearable living costs. Fiscal responsibility that operates only against the poor is not reform. It is cruelty dressed up in economic grammar.”
He said Nigerians experience the economy not through spreadsheets, press conferences or FAAC communiqués, but through what happens every time they enter a market, board a bus, pay school fees, buy medicine or attempt to feed their families. “Nigerians do not eat FAAC figures. They do not pay school fees with percentages. They do not buy medicine with press conferences, and they do not enter buses with government charts. They live in the real economy, and the real economy is measured by what their money can buy. “More naira is not automatically more prosperity.