Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Engagement, Fredrick Nwabufo, has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deserves re-election on the strength of his administration’s delivery on its campaign promises and the emerging gains of economic reforms implemented over the past three years.
Nwabufo said the administration had kept faith with the core pillars of the manifesto on which Tinubu was elected, arguing that policies initially accompanied by economic hardship were increasingly translating into macroeconomic stability, expanded opportunities and tangible benefits for Nigerians.
He made the case in an article titled: ‘From Reform to Prosperity: A Case for President Tinubu’s Re-election,’ in which he highlighted education financing, improved government revenues, infrastructure development, economic growth, and strengthened investor confidence as evidence that the reforms were beginning to yield results.
According to him, the administration has moved beyond policy declarations by translating its commitments into structural reforms and programmes affecting critical segments of the population.
‘Essentially, the Tinubu administration has kept faith with the core pillars of its original manifesto. It has honoured foundational commitments, translating policy blueprints into tangible infrastructure and structural reforms. What it said it would do, it has done,’ Nwabufo said.
He acknowledged that the reform process had imposed difficulties on Nigerians, particularly following major fiscal adjustments and the removal of petrol subsidy, but maintained that the economy had moved sufficiently towards recovery and was now on a stronger growth trajectory.
‘It has not been an easy road to tread, really, but it has been far from a Golgotha experience. Our economy has reached a sufficient recovery and is already on a stronger growth trajectory,’ he said.
Nwabufo cited the latest Gross Domestic Product figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, which showed that the economy grew by 4.43 per cent year-on-year in real terms in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 4.23 per cent recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.
He said the growth was driven by improvements in the oil and gas, manufacturing, agriculture and services sectors, while inflation declined to 15.43 per cent in July from 15.91 per cent previously.
The presidential aide also pointed to what he described as renewed international confidence in the Nigerian economy, citing recent assessments by international institutions and developments in the capital market.
He said Moody’s had revised Nigeria’s outlook to positive while affirming its B3 rating, attributing the development to stronger external buffers and continued reform momentum.
Nwabufo also cited FTSE Russell’s decision to restore Nigeria to Frontier Market status, effective from the opening of trading on September 21, 2026, following nearly three years in the ‘Unclassified’ category.
He said the Nigerian stock market had also emerged months earlier as the world’s best-performing equity market in dollar terms, surpassing South Korea, which he attributed to improving investor confidence and the country’s macroeconomic outlook.
According to him, Nigeria’s foreign reserves have risen above $53 billion, their highest level in nearly two decades, while the country was ranked the best-performing African economy in the 2026 World Competitiveness Ranking released by the International Institute for Management Development in June.
Nwabufo argued that the indicators showed the administration’s fiscal realignments and other economic reforms were laying the foundation for longer-term stability, infrastructure expansion, increased revenues to subnational governments, and job creation.
‘From yesterday’s challenges, Nigeria is transitioning today, undergirded by economic policy shifts-such as fiscal realignments and fuel subsidy removal-toward long-term stabilisation, infrastructure returns, expanded federal revenue distributions to states, job creation, and emerging microeconomic gains,’ he said.
He added that although economic challenges had not been completely eliminated, gains from macroeconomic stabilisation were already reaching important sections of the population.
The presidential aide said states were now better positioned to meet salary obligations, contrasting the situation with an earlier period when, according to him, 27 states struggled to pay workers.
He also identified the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation, CREDICORP, education financing, grants to low-income households and support for small businesses as some of the mechanisms through which the administration was seeking to transmit economic gains to ordinary Nigerians.
Nwabufo devoted a substantial part of his argument to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, which he described as one of the administration’s most consequential interventions.
Using the example of a student identified as Suleiman, who struggled to finance his university education before accessing the loan scheme in 2024, Nwabufo said NELFUND prevented financial difficulties from ending the educational aspirations of many young Nigerians.
‘NELFUND helped me cross the finish line. It was a lifeline,’ he quoted the student as saying.
According to Nwabufo, close to two million students have benefited from the initiative, giving young Nigerians who could otherwise have been forced out of tertiary institutions an opportunity to continue their education.
He described the programme as a ‘historical novelty’ whose impact, he argued, would be remembered by its beneficiaries for generations.
The presidential aide also sought to dispel what he described as political misconceptions surrounding the student loan programme, stressing that it is a zero-interest facility available to Nigerian students in tertiary institutions and repayable only after beneficiaries have completed the National Youth Service Corps programme.
‘To address certain political contortions, NELFUND is a zero-interest facility open to all Nigerian students in tertiary institutions. It is only due for repayment two years after the completion of the NYSC,’ he said.
Nwabufo cautioned against reducing the programme to partisan politics, saying its primary purpose was to widen access to tertiary education, strengthen Nigeria’s productive workforce and expand young people’s access to jobs and economic opportunities.
He argued that the administration’s first three years had largely been devoted to difficult reforms and laying the foundations required to reposition the economy.
Nwabufo said with the groundwork accomplished, the country was moving into a phase in which the benefits of the reforms should become increasingly visible.
‘In the past three years, the hard work of scaffolding and foundation laying has been accomplished; the reforms have been sown, and now we are harvesting prosperity,’ he said.
Making a direct pitch for continuity beyond the current term, the presidential aide said a second phase of the Renewed Hope Agenda would consolidate the gains already recorded and combine immediate delivery with longer-term development.
‘With Renewed Hope Agenda 2, we will deliver today while building for tomorrow,’ Nwabufo said.