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African Democratic Congress (ADC) spokesman Bolaji Abdullahi has questioned whether Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele has the right academic background to manage Nigeria’s economy, arguing that the country needs professionals trained in economics to make critical policy decisions.
Abdullahi made the remarks on Monday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, while discussing the Federal Government’s plan to reduce petrol prices for 30 days.
“I’m not saying he’s incompetent, but I think he doesn’t have the right education,” Abdullahi said.
He argued that decisions on fuel subsidies and other economic policies are shaped by ideology and require an understanding of how different economic schools of thought approach national development.
Abdullahi stressed that his criticism was not a personal attack on Oyedele, whom he described as intelligent and someone he respected.
“No, I’m not going personal. Like I said, I have utmost respect for him. And I think he’s quite a smart guy. I’m not taking that away from him,” he said.
He added: “But what I’m saying is that the way an accountant reviews an economy is not the same way an economist reviews it. And the same way a classical economist would look at it is not the way a development economist would look at it.
“We need people who are trained to do this job to do it.”
Oyedele holds a Higher National Diploma in accountancy and finance from Yaba College of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in applied accounting from Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom.
He also completed executive education programmes at the London School of Economics, Yale University, Gordon Institute of Business Science and Harvard Kennedy School.
Before his appointment as Minister of State for Finance, Oyedele spent 22 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he became the firm’s first fiscal policy partner and Africa tax leader.
Last Thursday, Oyedele announced a 30-day petrol price discount at filling stations operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC).
He said transporters would receive priority and maintained that the initiative was not a subsidy, but an arrangement for the government to sell petrol at cost.
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, the ADC’s presidential candidate, accused President Bola Tinubu of adopting his proposal to ease fuel costs through targeted support while limiting the government’s intervention to a 30-day discount.
Atiku said the administration had previously dismissed his proposal as unworkable and described him as ignorant of economic policy.
