Public trust is at risk when citizens attack lenders without grasping how loans and banking systems function, Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele told reporters in Abuja. He criticised Nigerians who flooded the World Bank’s social media with abuse over the institution’s decision to lend to Nigeria, a backlash that prompted the World Bank to disable comments.
Speaking at a media briefing on the federal government’s economic reform scorecard, Oyedele used an ATM analogy to explain the mismatch between perception and process. He said uninformed observers can see some people withdrawing cash and mistake it for preferential access, sparking mobilisation against the system rather than an inquiry into how funds are deposited and distributed. “Some people who have no knowledge of how it works. They said why is government allowing some people withdraw money here and they’re not giving to the rest of us,” he said.
He described how leaders can emerge from that confusion, urging actions that damage infrastructure and other citizens while delivering no solution to the underlying problem. “So some leaders emerged from their group and said this is not fair government has to and then they went and destroyed the ATM, beat up some other people withdrawing money there and they were hailing their hero,” Oyedele said, adding that those tactics leave people no better off. “After breaking the bank and the ATM and beating people up, they still can’t collect money ’cause that’s not how the system works.”
Oyedele warned that misunderstanding economic mechanics wastes effort and undermines accountability. “If you don’t understand how the system works, you waste energy,” he said, linking the complaint to the broader context of the government’s reforms since 2023. The briefing, held at the Federal Ministry of Finance, formed part of the “Nigeria’s Reform Scorecard: The Benefits and Harms Prevented” presentation that followed President Bola Tinubu’s directive for a public accounting of gains, costs and impacts from the administration’s policies.
The minister also cautioned that the reform data could be repurposed for political ends after the briefing. “I know what’s going to happen after today now is some people will take this data and turn it upside down for campaign,” he said, and challenged Nigerians to consider whether their actions build the country or tear it apart. “And you have to be honest with yourself. Are you trying to build your country or you are trying to tear it apart?”
