When Leaders Applaud Quenching The Fire They Lit

By Abidemi Adebamiwa

Nigeria is being urged to celebrate a calmer exchange rate as evidence that the economy is finally finding its feet. On paper, the naira looks steadier. On the streets, life feels no lighter. That gap is why the applause sounds forced.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not inherit this particular shock. His administration chose a sudden overhaul of the foreign exchange system, pulling away controls in one sweep. The market reacted exactly as markets do when guardrails vanish. The naira plunged, prices jumped, and ordinary Nigerians paid first and hardest.

To me, this moment is not about numbers on a trading screen. It is about memory. Nigerians remember how quickly things unraveled and how little protection there was when prices began to race ahead of incomes. I believe that matters more than any short-term chart showing a modest correction. That right there is a case for dialectic economic reasoning, holding the necessity of reform and the reality of its human cost in the same frame, rather than pretending one cancels out the other.

What is happening now is not a miracle. It is a pause after turbulence. Most definitely, governments everywhere try to turn that pause into a badge of wisdom, separating the pain of adjustment from the credit of recovery. The crash becomes unavoidable history. The rebound becomes leadership.

That framing struggles to convince people who still face higher food prices, transport costs that no longer make sense, and rent that keeps rising. A firmer exchange rate does not automatically rewrite price tags. It does not refill wallets emptied by months of inflation. It mostly reassures investors and lenders watching from a distance.

I believe Nigerians are not hostile to reform. They understand that the old system was broken and riddled with distortions. What troubles them is the feeling of being carried through change without a handrail, asked to endure first and be grateful later.

Economic leadership is not measured by how boldly a system is dismantled. It is measured by how carefully people are carried through the transition. When survival is framed as success, trust erodes.

If the government wants genuine applause, it should show how currency movements translate into relief at the market stall and the bus stop. Speak plainly about responsibility. Show empathy before celebration. That, to you and me, should be what reform leadership looks like.

Abidemi Adebamiwa is the Managing Editor @ Newspot Nigeria