₦airaland Forum

and Tinubu has not finished 1st term yet o...the largest reserve ever.

Amtasiu:
Nigeria's external reserves since 1999 by different administrations

🟢OBASANJO — grew by 845%
May 1999 — $4.99 billion
May 2007 — $43.17 billion

🔴YAR'ADUA — dropped by 6.6%
May 2007 — $43.17 billion
Apr 2010 — $40.32 billion

🔴JONATHAN — dropped by 29%
Apr 2010 — $40.32 billion
May 2015 — $28.57 billion

🟢BUHARI — grew by 20%
May 2015 — $28.56 billion
May 2023 — $34.39 billion

🟢TINUBU [Ongoing] — grew by 19%
May 2023 — $34.38 billion
As of 20 Jan 2026 — $46.012 billion ( the highest in history )

CBN/Statisense
(CBN)

Image123:
Highest in history, Jagaban for a reason. GEJ dropped it like soap, unforgivable if not for God.

If not for God?? Are you making a laugh mate??
Ffs what's wrong with you guys?

brain54:
Why did you single out Jonah...?

You can't use only foreign reserve to pass your judgement. The drop during Jonah's time was due to oil price volatility and foreign exchange interventions.

We have had many destroyers the only people excepted ( I personally) are obasanjo and probably yaradua because his tenure was too short lived to pass a judgement.


The rest are a bunch of scallies and that's not judging by foreign reserves alone but how they were generally able to manage the economy!

What are you even spewing?

Crude was insanely expensive during Jonathan regime, they saw free Awoof money and so many economists and financial institutions warned them to utilise such privilege but his administration never did.

Guy, must you guys always look for a way to defend nonsense?

Yet some mumu said we better in 2015. Okay

Image123:
Highest in history, Jagaban for a reason. GEJ dropped it like soap, unforgivable if not for God.

I hope you'll retain same energy when GDP, forex, inflation and cost of living is discussed

everythingtall3:
Jonathan werey , him and deziany and that his wife really dealth with this country

yar adua death distrupted the game plan of the older politician, and the werey too could not assimilate into the political setting and was toss around like a coin, if not for his brave wife they would have over throne him

grandstar:
The figures here show the gross external reserves and not the net reserves. The net reserves show the actual reserves the central bank has access to, and it and does not include the encumbered amount.

Tinubu actually met $3.99bn as net foreign reserves.

Thanks for this. I wondered where the 34B came from.

Emeskhalifa:
What are you even spewing?

Crude was insanely expensive during Jonathan regime, they saw free Awoof money and so many economists and financial institutions warned them to utilise such privilege but his administration never did.

Guy, must you guys always look for a way to defend nonsense?

When crude is expensive what happens to subsidy

With this dollar exchange or it doesn't count.

You are right, politics is not about book because we've tried a professor , you have to be street smart, I think if not that Tinubu is corrupt, to be honest the guy is street smart and only people like this can lead this country but he is just too corrupt.

Pootle:
yar adua death distrupted the game plan of the older politician, and the werey too could not assimilate into the political setting and was toss around like a coin, if not for his brave wife they would have over throne him

Lithiumite:
Gej's management of the economy was abysmal.....we still haven't matched oil revenues as obtainable during his time,i appreciate the fact you mentioned he kept intervening in the forex market but I hope you understand he was borrowing heavily to keep the dollar price low and also paying subsidies which were unsustainable and was also followed through by buhari which put us in the economic mess we are in today.

GEJ paid the hugest subsidy
Tinubu paid next to nothing
You have to factor that in when making comparisons

Thanks so much.

Fiscus105:
Money or valuable saved by various governments in dollars or major currencies in foreign countries.

Highest in history but just grew 3billion from 1999 to 2025. A whooping 25years and it grew just 3b

No infrastructure during obj

Brendaniel:
When I tell Tinubu supporters that though OBJ jad his faults he is by far better than Tinubu and Tinubu has no excuse to blame previous governments for his failure.

How do you measure performance, it is based on what you met and what you left, just take a look at the chart up there for OBJ, imagine if it was Tinubu who met such in 1999 when he became president, just think about the manner of excuses he would have been giving.


And still OBJ paid subsidy throughout his tenure and cleared Nigeria's debts of about 38 billion dollars, and still opened an excess crude oil account and saved over 30 billion dollars within a space of 8 years which was separate from external reserve he grew from 4 billion dollars to 43 billion dollars...

Now I ask them again, What exactly is Tinubu"s excuse? The bad part is a lot of his people hate OBJ and like Tinubu and will tell you that Tinubu is better, why? Tribalism, OBJ is a nationalist, Tinubu is an ethnic supremacist leader

He paid subsidies but no infrastructure on like now

Kukutente23:
GEJ paid the hugest subsidy
Tinubu paid next to nothing
You have to factor that in when making comparisons

Jagaban is slowly resetting Nigeria’s economy. It can only get better

Brendaniel:
[b]When I tell Tinubu supporters that though OBJ jad his faults he is by far better than Tinubu and Tinubu has no excuse to blame previous governments for his failure.
]

You cannot compare like that. Obj took over from a military government and we all know how reckless they were with funds.

OBJ kind of started on a plain slate.

everythingtall3:
You are right, politics is not about book because we've tried a professor , you have to be street smart, I think if not that Tinubu is corrupt, to be honest the guy is street smart and only people like this can lead this country but he is just too corrupt.

you hit it tinubu is corrupt and old, a younger him will have done better some of his policies still shows flashes of his weak awareness. another thing to tinubu wanted the presidency out of ego not really because he wanted to make a different. his campaign before he won shows from his speeches boosting how he help others and now was his time. so painful the country is this way and the youths are the cause.

Kukutente23:
I hope you'll retain same energy when GDP, forex, inflation and cost of living is discussed

What energy? Is truth energy?

For proper context, Obasanjo succeeded a military dictatorship including Abacha whose regime made Nigeria a pariah nation.

The bar was very low in 1999. Places like Benin Republic were already fully using mobile phones while most Nigerians were queueing at phone booths to make landline calls.

Obasanjo came in and simply deregulated a locked down economy, a no-brainer decision already pointed out for years by Nigerians.

Despite that, Obasanjo still managed to bungle the privatisation of key holdings like NITEL, Nigerian Airways, Steel Mills, Aluminum companies, and many others.

The saving graces were telecoms and the banking sector with pockets of success in other sectors.

Foreign reserve is like the foreign currencies a man with foreign needs maintains to cover his immediate needs for 6-12 months window.

He could have a robust foreign reserve but be in so much foreign debt that makes a mockery of that reserve.
He could also be in possession of so much unproductive assets and engage unproductice/wasteful expenditure.

Thats the case of Nigeria under Tinubu.

Laffwittmi:
No infrastructure during obj

Don't be a liar.

wellmax:
You cannot compare like that. Obj took over from a military government and we all know how reckless they were with funds.

OBJ kind of started on a plain slate.

Simple as ABC. The bar was very low with Obasanjo.

wellmax:
You cannot compare like that. Obj took over from a military government and we all know how reckless they were with funds.

OBJ kind of started on a plain slate.

You just said they were reckless with funds, so how do you call that a plain slate with so much debts and reserve depletion?

Please explain the plain slate to me....

Vipro:
The poor masses has no business with External reserves, it should be called Presidential reserve because na dem dey benefit from am.

All we are asking is simple make....food, clothing and shelter affordable for the masses.

Olodo! Negative correlation exists between foreign reserves and inflation in our import-dependent economy.

Why are prices dropping with increasing foreign reserves?

Brendaniel:
Don't be a liar.

What you posted showed projects during the military era before 1979, not Obasanjo as civilian president which is the focus of this thread.
NNPC was in 1977 and Egbin Thermal station was in the 80s, not by Obasanjo.

I don't understand highest in history....
Obasanjo grew it by 800+ % and Tinubu grew it by 19%

Brendaniel:
When I tell Tinubu supporters that though OBJ jad his faults he is by far better than Tinubu and Tinubu has no excuse to blame previous governments for his failure.

How do you measure performance, it is based on what you met and what you left, just take a look at the chart up there for OBJ, imagine if it was Tinubu who met such in 1999 when he became president, just think about the manner of excuses he would have been giving.


And still OBJ paid subsidy throughout his tenure and cleared Nigeria's debts of about 38 billion dollars, and still opened an excess crude oil account and saved over 30 billion dollars within a space of 8 years which was separate from external reserve he grew from 4 billion dollars to 43 billion dollars...

Now I ask them again, What exactly is Tinubu"s excuse? The bad part is a lot of his people hate OBJ and like Tinubu and will tell you that Tinubu is better, why? Tribalism, OBJ is a nationalist, Tinubu is an ethnic supremacist leader

Say no more my bro. That has always been my analogy all these while. If they had taken over Nigeria in 1999. It would have been excuses upon excuses and sold off Nigeria to the Chinese patapata

And also they hate OBJ because baba was a Nationalist and doest play their nonesense ethnic politics the current Tinubu APC gang plays

And that is why they still can't lace Obasanjo's shoes.

davodyguy:
Under Jonathan, oil price went to $140/Barrel.

So they should have saved more if he was prudent.

Under Buhari down to Tinubu, oil price is yet to clock $100

That's 8 years Buhari plus 3 years Tinubu, oil yet to reach $100

Jonathan is the worst! Oil prices rising and reserves dropping; all monies gotten from oil were stolen and used to stabilise the naira., with no tangible infrastructures.

brain54:
Why did you single out Jonah...?

You can't use only foreign reserve to pass your judgement. The drop during Jonah's time was due to oil price volatility and foreign exchange interventions.

We have had many destroyers the only people excepted ( I personally) are obasanjo and probably yaradua because his tenure was too short lived to pass a judgement.


The rest are a bunch of scallies and that's not judging by foreign reserves alone but how they were generally able to manage the economy!

why trying to defend what is indefensible. Jonathan was the most luckiest of them, yet wasteful because in 2011/12 crude got to it peak 140 dollar per barrel and our budget benchmark was around 80 dollar to a barrel therefore there were excess crude fund to save and to play with. Jonathan weakness manifested when Okonjo Iwela, suggested saving for the raining days but the governors forum led by rotimi Ameachi kicked against it and they had their ways and were sharing the money.

Brendaniel:
You just said they were reckless with funds, so how do you call that a plain slate with so much debts and reserve depletion?

Please explain the plain slate to me....

Nigeria was in economic limbo during the military era prior to 1999. Everybody was well aware of that. 1999 was widely regarded as clean slate. Pick any sector and start working, that was the state back then.

Amalekki:
Nigeria was in economic limbo during the military era prior to 1999. Everybody was well aware of that. 1999 was widely regarded as clean slate. Pick any sector and start working, that was the state back then.

You just said the economy was in limbo, explain to me hos that became a clean slate?

What exactly was given to OBJ that Tinubu does not have now that made it a clean slate, please list them out, you can't call something a clean slate without explaining what made it clean.