Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, has criticized Nigerians who attacked the World Bank on social media over its loans to Nigeria.
Oyedele said the attacks showed that some Nigerians did not understand how international development financing works.
He spoke on Wednesday in Abuja at a briefing on the Federal Government’s economic reform scorecard.
According to him, some Nigerians went to the World Bank’s social media pages to criticize the institution for lending to Nigeria, prompting the bank to disable comments.
“We’ve gotten the loan because that’s not how the system works,” Oyedele said.
The minister likened the situation to people attacking and destroying an Automated Teller Machine because they did not understand how banking and withdrawals worked.
He said such actions would achieve nothing because the underlying problem would remain unresolved.
“If you don’t understand how the system works, you waste energy,” he said.
Oyedele also said Nigerians needed accurate knowledge to effectively hold the government accountable and warned against manipulating economic data for political purposes.
“I know what’s going to happen after today, some people will take this data and turn it upside down for campaign,” he said.
He urged Nigerians to consider whether their actions were aimed at building or undermining the country.
The briefing, titled “Nigeria’s Reform Scorecard: The Benefits and Harms Prevented,” was held following President Bola Tinubu’s directive for the finance minister to publicly account for the gains, costs, and impact of the administration’s economic reforms since 2023.
The World Bank says its financing supports government development programs and policy and institutional reforms. Its Development Policy Financing, for instance, is tied to agreed policy actions and reform programs.
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