Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar would scrap the Bola Tinubu administration’s floating exchange-rate policy if elected president in 2027, according to Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesperson for his presidential campaign council.
Okonkwo made the statement while appearing on AIT’s Democracy Today, where he criticised the government’s decision to allow market forces to play a major role in determining the value of the naira.
He argued that the government must actively defend the national currency, insisting that protecting the naira remains an important part of macroeconomic management.
“No country in the whole world leaves their currency undefended,” Okonkwo said.
He maintained that the strength of the naira was fundamental to the health of the Nigerian economy, warning that a significant loss in the currency’s value could undermine economic activity.
According to him, the government should have intervened earlier to prevent the naira from suffering severe depreciation.
“Have you forgotten when the naira was climbing almost to N2,000 per dollar? This government remembered to start defending the naira. Why wait for it to crumble?” he asked.
Okonkwo also linked the strength of the naira to Nigeria’s ability to increase exports and reduce its dependence on imports.
“What makes your naira strong? When your export is more than your import, your currency starts gaining power,” he said.
He further accused the Tinubu administration of encouraging imports, citing a N34 billion import waiver as an example of policies he said could undermine domestic production.
When confronted with recent National Bureau of Statistics data indicating that Nigeria’s exports had exceeded imports, however, Okonkwo dismissed the figures as insufficient evidence of meaningful economic progress.
“Not that you made any appreciable increase. It cannot be progress because life is still unaffordable,” he said.
Atiku’s position on the naira differs from that of Peter Obi, who has said he would retain the floating exchange-rate policy if elected president.
Obi has said he would focus on increasing productivity and strengthening the economy rather than directly defending the naira, with the expectation that a stronger economy would ultimately make the currency more valuable.
The Central Bank of Nigeria introduced the “willing buyer, willing seller” foreign-exchange model in June 2023 as part of reforms aimed at unifying Nigeria’s multiple foreign-exchange market segments and allowing market forces to play a greater role in determining the naira’s value.
The reform was followed by a sharp depreciation of the currency. CBN data showed that the exchange rate at the Investors’ and Exporters’ window closed at N770.88 per dollar at the end of June 2023, compared with N460 per dollar at the end of December 2022.
The latest position from Atiku’s camp is expected to add to the growing debate over exchange-rate management and economic policy ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
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