The president of the Africa Sociocultural Harmony and Enlightenment (ASHE) foundation, Prince Justice Faloye, has expressed deep concerns over the continued downturn of the Nigerian economy despite the recent cabinet reshuffle by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Concerns Over Economic Direction
Faloye, in a statement to the media, argued that the removal of the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, and his replacement with Taiwo Oyedele—a tax accountant known for promoting retrogressive indirect taxes and the controversial 2026 Tax Reforms—will create further chaos for the country's economy.
He noted that putting politics, religion, and ethnicity aside, this administration and Nigeria's political leadership since 1978 have been ideologically disposed to arresting economic development and prosperity.
Critique of Neoliberal Policies
Faloye pointed out that President Tinubu, an accountant by profession, removed Edun—a neoliberal financial professional who he claims wiped out half of the country's GDP and increased poverty from 38% to 63%—and replaced him with Oyedele, an architect of regressive tax policies. According to him, this is a neocolonial administration focused on revenue generation for power backers through rent-seeking, not wealth creation to uplift the people.
He recalled that previous presidents drew a poverty line they could not push the masses over, citing Buhari, who publicly stated he could not impose such harsh measures on his people.
Failed Economic Ideologies
Faloye asserted that regardless of propaganda and media control, President Tinubu's economic reforms can never work due to flawed ideological foundations. He noted that over sixty Black nations adopted similar neoliberal policies since the late seventies and failed.
He questioned whether Africans are ignorantly self-destructive or if the system has been systemically programmed and imposed. Faloye also highlighted that just as African Americans produce above-average numbers of psychology graduates to understand racism, continental Africans have an abnormal number of lawyers and accountants in public office to administer the neocolonial system that exploits and impoverishes the masses.
Historical Context
Faloye emphasized that the study of economics, started by Adam Smith during slavery, is classical economics of Western imperialism, with no government planning for the poor until after World War I. The 1929 Great Depression forced Western elites to develop macroeconomics, particularly Keynesian economics, using deficit budgeting to boost employment and reduce poverty.
According to him, this birthed two ideological positions: left or right, capitalist or socialist, neoliberal versus welfarist economics. One is for Black economic liberation, the other for Black re-enslavement.
Awolowo's Keynesian Legacy
Faloye recalled that following FDR's New Deal, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and leaders of newly independent African and Asian nations adopted pro-poor Keynesian economics, with principles of free education, health, rural employment, and full employment via new residential and industrial estates. This brought rapid development until the mid-seventies when racist capitalists reversed it.
The 1973 oil price shock gave Thatcher and Reagan the excuse to use the IMF and World Bank to reimpose neoclassical economics. In the USA and UK, black employment sources were destroyed via accounting rationalization and privatization, while Keynesian subsidies were restricted to the military-industrial complex.
Contemporary Implications
Faloye noted that newly independent African nations, trapped by balance-of-payments crises, faced enforced neoliberal economics through structural adjustment programs. These withdrew government support for development and social contracts, dragging the masses into poverty, while China and Asian nations that rejected it developed rapidly.
In the 2023 presidential elections, only candidates vowing fuel subsidy removal and devaluation—Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi—attended the UK Chatham House debate and received Western acknowledgment. Awolowo's welfarist perspective lived on in the SDP, espoused by candidate Prince Adewole Adebayo, who turned down the invitation, recognizing it as a neocolonial contest.
Faloye concluded that Awolowo's Keynesian economics has been refined: free education and healthcare could be means-tested; rural and full employment achieved via massive public works, building at least 10,000 houses daily and 10 kilometers of rail per local government, leveraging fundamentals to build the consumer market and foster organic heavy manufacturing.
