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Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar presidential campaign council, says the former vice-president will end the Bola Tinubu administration’s floating exchange rate policy if elected president in 2027.
Okonkwo made the statement on Monday while appearing on Democracy Today, an AIT programme, where he criticised the Federal Government’s decision to allow market forces to play a major role in determining the value of the naira.
He argued that a government should not leave its currency entirely exposed to market forces, insisting that protecting the naira is 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 is fundamental to the health of the Nigerian economy, warning that a significant loss in the currency’s value could undermine economic activity.
“What did you call macroeconomic policy? The whole idea of macroeconomic policy is to defend your currency, because once your currency becomes like dust, nobody is going to desire it,” he said.
Okonkwo also questioned why the government waited for the naira to depreciate significantly before taking steps to support it.
“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.
He 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,” the Atiku campaign spokesperson said.
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Okonkwo further accused the Tinubu administration of encouraging imports, citing a N34 billion import waiver as an example of what he described as policies that could undermine domestic production.
However, when confronted with recent National Bureau of Statistics data showing that Nigeria’s exports had exceeded imports, 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.
His comments come ahead of the 2027 presidential election, as opposition candidates continue to outline how their economic policies would differ from those of the Tinubu administration.
Atiku’s position on the naira differs from that of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, who has said he would retain the floating exchange rate if elected.
Obi has said he would not focus on defending the naira, but would instead prioritise increasing productivity and strengthening the economy so that the currency becomes more valuable to Nigerians.
The Central Bank of Nigeria introduced the “willing buyer, willing seller” model on June 14, 2023, as part of reforms aimed at unifying Nigeria’s multiple foreign exchange market segments.
The reform, introduced shortly after Tinubu assumed office, was designed to give supply and demand a greater role in determining the naira’s value, while improving transparency and price discovery in the foreign exchange market.
The naira subsequently recorded a sharp depreciation. According to CBN data, 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.
