A prominent pro-government advocacy group, Renewed Hope Global, has strongly condemned a recent Chatham House commentary that criticized President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s diplomatic engagements and domestic policies.
In a rebuttal, the group’s Programme Director, Hon. Tosin Olayinka, described the think-tank’s analysis authored by Dr. Leena Koni Hoffmann as poorly researched, selectively pessimistic, and lacking in analytical depth regarding Nigeria’s economic trajectory following the President’s March 2026 state visit to the United Kingdom.
Olayinka argued that the Chatham House piece falsely presents domestic reform and foreign diplomacy as mutually exclusive endeavors.
He emphasized that the Tinubu administration has been aggressively pursuing both, noting that international financial institutions have recognized Nigeria’s material progress.
According to the group, the International Monetary Fund recently praised Nigeria’s macroeconomic stabilization in its 2025 Article IV consultation, highlighting the successful removal of costly fuel subsidies and improved foreign exchange market operations.
He also cited the World Bank’s late 2025 Development Update commending the country’s bold fiscal and monetary policy reforms.
To counter the narrative that the administration’s policies have yielded no dividends, the statement highlighted several specific macroeconomic improvements.
Olayinka pointed out that Nigeria’s real GDP growth rose to 3.87 percent for the full year of 2025, up from 3.38 percent in 2024.
He also highlighted that gross foreign exchange reserves surged to $50.45 billion by February 2026, while inflation decelerated for the eleventh consecutive month to 15.06 percent during the same period. Sovereign credit ratings have also seen positive momentum, with Moody’s upgrading Nigeria to B3 in May 2025 and S&P revising the nation’s outlook to positive later that year, citing better external positions and stronger policy credibility.
Addressing the critique of the President’s foreign engagements, the Renewed Hope Global director pointed to concrete bilateral outcomes from the March 2026 UK state visit.
He highlighted a newly signed £746 million export finance agreement, guaranteed by UK Export Finance and coordinated by Citibank, aimed at refurbishing the Lagos Port Complex and Tin Can Island Port Complex.
Olayinka argued that characterizing such diplomatic efforts as mere optics ignores the structured bilateral instruments that actively facilitate capital, expertise, and market opportunities.
He also noted a significant rebound in the energy sector, with oil production stabilizing at around 1.5 million barrels per day in 2025, backed by over $5 billion in upstream investment commitments.
While acknowledging the genuine hardship and social pain currently faced by many Nigerian households due to the lagged effects of subsidy removals and exchange-rate adjustments, Olayinka maintained that these challenges do not negate the necessity or the progress of the reforms.
He concluded that the administration is actively recalibrating the nation’s economic foundation, urging critics to recognize the verifiable achievements already on record rather than relying on what he termed recycled defeatism.
The ultimate task for the administration, he noted, remains translating these macroeconomic and global wins into localized prosperity, security, and lower living costs for all citizens.