CSOs, labour leaders: Tinubu’s reforms are repeating SAP’s mistakes 40 years later
Labour leaders, development experts, civil society organisations (CSOs) and economists have said the economic reforms being implemented by the administration of President Bola Tinubu mirror the policies of the structural adjustment programme (SAP).
Speaking in Abuja on Thursday at a conference marking 40 years since Nigeria adopted SAP, the stakeholders warned that the country risks repeating the mistakes of the past unless it adopts a new development model anchored on a capable developmental state.
The conference, titled “Forty Years of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in Nigeria: History, impact and the way forward,” was organised by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) in collaboration with ActionAid Nigeria, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), CITAD, CISLAC and other partners.
Participants said SAP fundamentally shifted Nigeria from a state-led economy to a market-oriented one through liberalisation, privatisation and deregulation but failed to deliver the industrialisation, job creation and inclusive prosperity it promised.
They argued that four decades later, Nigeria remains trapped in weak industrial capacity, dependence on crude oil exports, high unemployment, persistent poverty and fragile public institutions.
Otive Igbuzor, founding executive director of Centre LSD, said the conference was convened to undertake an evidence-based reassessment of one of Nigeria’s most consequential economic policies and draw lessons for current reforms.
Igbuzor observed that many of the federal government’s ongoing policies, including exchange-rate liberalisation, fuel subsidy removal, fiscal consolidation and public sector restructuring, closely resemble the prescriptions introduced under SAP in 1986.
“Whether one regards SAP as a necessary response to an economic crisis or as the beginning of many of our developmental challenges, there is no doubt that it fundamentally altered the direction of Nigeria’s economy and society,” he said.
He said reforms should be judged not only by macroeconomic indicators but also by their ability to create jobs, reduce poverty, strengthen institutions, improve education and healthcare, deepen industrialisation and restore hope to citizens.
Igbuzor urged Nigeria to move beyond decades of “adjustment” and embrace a genuine development agenda driven by a democratic developmental state working in partnership with the private sector and civil society.
Delivering the keynote address on behalf of Adebayo Olukoshi, a political economist, O’seun Odewale, director of operations at AIPCTA, described SAP as perhaps the most influential economic reform programme in Nigeria’s post-independence history.
Odewale said contemporary debates over exchange-rate reforms, subsidy removal, privatisation and debt sustainability cannot be understood without appreciating SAP’s legacy.
He noted that many current reforms represent a continuation of its underlying philosophy rooted in the Washington consensus promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Celestine Odo, head of programmes and policy at ActionAid Nigeria, described SAP as an austerity programme that imposed severe social and economic hardship across Nigeria and much of Africa.
‘MANY CHILDREN NOW ATTEND SCHOOL HUNGRY’
Representing the organisation’s country director, Odo said the programme’s emphasis on reducing public spending and expanding market forces had weakened access to healthcare, education and other essential public services.
Drawing from ActionAid’s post-2023 fuel subsidy removal assessments, he said many households now struggle to afford three meals a day, while children increasingly attend school hungry.
“The economy may be growing on paper, but poverty and inequality are increasing. That kind of growth has no human face,” Odo said.
He rejected suggestions that SAP could simply be modified with social interventions.
“No serious country abandons its citizens to the market. Governments in Europe, America and Scandinavia spend heavily on social protection because governance is about service, not profit,” he added.
Dauda Garuba, director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), also faulted SAP’s ideological foundation, arguing that the reforms steadily weakened the Nigerian state by reducing its responsibility for providing public services.
He linked the gradual commercialisation of education and healthcare to SAP-era reforms, saying public institutions deteriorated as private alternatives expanded.
“Markets are driven by profit, while governance is driven by service. Government cannot be run with the ethics of the market,” Garuba said.
“If you discover that you are on the wrong road, no matter how far you have travelled, the right thing is to retrace your steps. Nigeria must return to building a developmental state that works for all its citizens.”
Responding to questions on whether Tinubu’s reforms resemble SAP, Ayo Obe, pro-democracy activist, said there is unmistakable continuity between both policy frameworks.
“The floating of the naira and fuel subsidy removal are core principles of SAP. President Tinubu’s reforms are another attempt to see whether Nigeria can implement SAP and get it right,” she said.
Obe, however, said countries such as China, Japan, Singapore, the United States and Rwanda achieved industrialisation through strategic state intervention rather than reliance on market forces alone.
Other participants, including Sam Edwi, Dung Sha, Salamatu Isa and Hussaini Abdu, said that although SAP expanded private sector participation and liberalised sectors such as telecommunications, it failed to strengthen manufacturing, modernise agriculture or diversify Nigeria’s export base.
They added that infrastructure deficits, exchange-rate instability and dependence on crude oil continue to undermine sustainable development despite decades of market-oriented reforms.
The conference concluded by calling for a new development model centred on industrialisation, technology-driven agriculture, infrastructure development, quality education, healthcare investment, stronger public institutions, social protection, democratic participation and effective domestic resource mobilisation.
Participants also identified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as an opportunity to strengthen industrial production and regional value chains.
They said neither the pre-SAP state-led model nor orthodox neoliberalism offers a complete solution to Nigeria’s development challenges.
They urged policymakers to pursue nationally driven and socially inclusive reforms that balance market efficiency with strategic government intervention while placing citizens’ welfare at the centre of economic policy.
administration of President Bola Tinubu
Centre LSD
conference marking 40 years since Nigeria adopted SAP
SAP
structural adjustment programme (SAP)
