The Architecture of Rebirth: An Open Letter to Chidi Amuta

Nigerian columnist Chidi Amuta recently penned a piece, “Abuja’s Gangster Chronicles,” sharply criticizing the current administration's direction. Amuta depicted the seat of government as a hollow enterprise, suggesting governance had succumbed to "primitive accumulation" and systemic failure, offering citizens a "darkly entertaining melodrama."

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You depict the seat of government as a hollow enterprise, a stage where governance has surrendered to “primitive accumulation” and systemic failure. You offer our citizens a darkly entertaining melodrama.

Responding to Amuta's critique, Minister Sunday Dare argued that such a portrayal overlooks the dire fiscal reality President Bola Tinubu inherited. Dare stated that on May 29, 2023, Tinubu did not take over a smoothly functioning state but a nation teetering on the edge of a fiscal precipice. Nigeria, he explained, was spending over 90 percent of its national revenue on debt servicing and sustaining a fuel subsidy regime that siphoned trillions of naira annually while starving essential services like schools, hospitals, and roads of capital.

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But as an intellectual, you know that sensationalism is not analysis, and cynicism is not statesmanship.

Dare further criticized the multi-tiered, artificial foreign exchange market, which he claimed rewarded unproductive currency speculation and stifled genuine manufacturing. He characterized this long-standing structural rot as the "real racket," mortgaging the future of generations for temporary public comfort. The Tinubu administration, Dare asserted, aims not to manage Nigeria's decline but to reverse it.

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When President Tinubu took the oath of office on May 29, 2023, he did not inherit a smoothly running machinery of state that simply required routine maintenance. He inherited a nation standing at the very edge of a fiscal precipice.

He acknowledged that arresting decades of systemic decay requires difficult and uncomfortable measures. When President Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy and unified the foreign exchange windows, Dare said, he anticipated severe initial shocks, including pinched households due to inflation. However, Dare framed these actions as necessary "bitter medicine" administered with the courage of true leadership, which he defined not as a popularity contest but as the resolve to save the patient's life. He concluded by noting that these structural decisions are now laying the foundation for a resilient economy, with non-oil revenues expanding and foreign direct investments returning due to perceived fiscal discipline and legal clarity.

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If we must talk about a criminal enterprise, Dr. Amuta, let us look at that long-standing structural rot: an unsustainable system that mortgaged the future of unborn generations under the guise of temporary public comfort. That was the real racket.