I get coconut head
Okonjo-Iweala wants Tinubu to provide safety nets for Nigerians
Good morning, Big Brains. My employers are throwing a party today, so my weekend is already off to a great start. I ghosted my sign language class last week, but I’m hoping to redeem myself tomorrow. I hope you have a great weekend too.
- Margaret
Word count: ~ 1000
Reading time ~ 5 mins
Let’s get into today’s edition:
Okonjo-Iweala wants Tinubu to provide safety nets for Nigerians
The federal government has approved four new reforms to boost Nigeria’s electricity supply
The Big Deal
Okonjo-Iweala wants Tinubu to provide safety nets for Nigerians
The world would be a terrible place without Nigerian women. If you disagree, you’re misogynistic, racist, fascist and all the other ist’s in the world. We’ll save the women's supremacy lecture for later, because all you need to know this morning is how Okojo-Iweala lowkey read President Tinubu for filth.
On Thursday, August 14, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala reminded President Tinubu that reforms without protection for poor Nigerians are counterproductive.
The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) started by acknowledging the necessity of Tinubu’s big economic moves, like scrapping petrol subsidies and merging foreign exchange windows, to stabilise the economy. But she added that reforms like that shouldn’t be implemented without the government building social safety nets for poor Nigerians first.
She also talked about how she’s been doing the Lord’s work with the help of the WTO, the International Trade Centre (ITC), and First Lady Remi Tinubu by launching a Women’s Exporters’ Fund for the digital economy, offering cash injections, business upgrades, and technical support for 146 Nigerian women ready to scale up or start from the ground up.
Why is this a big deal?
It’s one thing to get financial advice from an expert; it’s entirely different when the expert in question turns out to be the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
As necessary as Okonjo-Iweala’s input is, she isn’t saying anything that others haven’t said before. Just last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which advocated for the reforms in the first place, acknowledged that the federal government still hasn’t created any trackable safety net in form of financial relief for its vulnerable citizens.
If this weren’t such a sensitive topic, it would be funny, because President Tinubu himself, with no gun pointed at his head, admitted how hard his economic reforms have made people’s lives. He even went as far as promising the IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, in November 2024, that his administration is prioritising the creation of safety nets. His exact words were. “The Nigerian people now understand the need for them (his reforms). But we have to reduce the hardship that has resulted from the implementation.”
Not much has changed since then. Petrol is still ₦835.250/litre, $1 is still ₦1,532, Nigerians are still suffering and our president is still forming coconut head.
We hate to be pessimistic, but even Nkonjo-Iweala’s visit to Aso Rock might not be enough to convince the president to act in the best interest of his people.
The federal government has approved four new reforms to boost Nigeria’s electricity supply
Last week, the federal government threatened us with a good time and an ambitious promise to give Nigerians a 24/7 electricity supply before the end of President Tinubu’s tenure. This week, the government is showing us how it plans to pull off its next trick.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) signed four new power sector reforms on Wednesday, August 13, which are expected to shake things up.
According to Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu, these reforms will modernise our problematic national grid (which, fun fact, has been running on life support for over 50 years), improve supply reliability, and meet the country’s rising electricity demand.
Adelabu admitted that the grid is older than some of us, and it’ll keep collapsing if these reforms are not implemented. But with these approvals, the Tinubu administration hopes to finally eliminate transmission limitations, reduce blackouts, and power economic growth.
We don’t want to bore you with the technical details, but this could be a good thing. Last year, the grid collapsed 12 times, and 128 transmission towers were lost to vandalism. If Adelabu says these four reforms are what we need to prevent affliction from arising for the 100th time, we’re so ready.
Your next big read
→I’m a Nigerian Tech Startup Founder Who Survived a Kidnapping and Hustled My Way to America: Aminu*, 27, had spent two years building his tech startup when his journey suddenly took a harrowing turn. While en route to a project site in an East-African country*, he was abruptly kidnapped — a brutal disruption that threatened both his life and his tech dreams.
→10 Nollywood Series That Hooked Us From the Very First Episode: With the rise of streaming platforms and Nollywood’s booming YouTube scene, audiences have been spoiled with a wide variety of TV series to binge. But let’s be honest — not every show can keep you glued to the screen from start to finish or be worth sacrificing your evening (and your sleep schedule) for.
The Big Picks
Dangote Refinery Slashes Ex-Depot Petrol Price By ₦30: Dangote Petroleum Refinery has announced a reduction in the ex-depot (gantry) price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol, by ₦30 from ₦850 to ₦820 per litre.
Bandits Kill Three In Benue Community: Bandits have again struck a community in Benue State, killing three persons.
Take a quiz before you leave
What Kind of Minister Are You?? Share your results and tag us on social media.
Play catch up
Nothing beats a Jet2 Holiday
If you don’t believe in astrology, please indulge us when we say Mercury is retrograde for the 100th time this month, because here we are, trying to explain yet another Nigerian news that barely makes sense to us.