Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, has criticised Nigerians who attacked the World Bank on social media over loans granted to Nigeria. He said the criticism reflected a poor understanding of how the international lending system works.
Oyedele spoke on Wednesday in Abuja during a media briefing on the Federal Government’s economic reform scorecard. He said some Nigerians had flooded the World Bank’s social media account with abusive comments over its decision to lend to Nigeria, prompting the institution to disable comments.
The minister used an Automated Teller Machine analogy to explain his point, comparing the World Bank and Nigeria’s economic system to an ATM and a bank. He argued that people who did not understand how the system worked could wrongly assume that money was being unfairly distributed without considering where the funds came from.
He said such misunderstanding could lead people to mobilise against the system, attack those using it and even destroy the ATM, only to discover that doing so would not solve the underlying problem. According to Oyedele, the lesson was that people who do not understand how a system works can waste their energy pursuing ineffective solutions.
Oyedele said the same principle applied to economic issues and citizens’ efforts to hold government accountable. He stressed that Nigerians needed accurate knowledge of economic systems and policies to effectively scrutinise government decisions rather than reacting based on incomplete understanding.
The minister also warned that economic data from the government’s reform scorecard could be manipulated for political purposes ahead of the 2027 elections. He urged Nigerians to examine their motives when interpreting the figures and asked whether their actions were intended to build the country or undermine it.
The briefing, titled “Nigeria’s Reform Scorecard: The Benefits and Harms Prevented”, followed President Bola Tinubu’s directive for the Finance Minister to publicly account for the gains, costs and impacts of the administration’s economic reforms since 2023.
