You lost the last presidential election to President Bola Tinubu; do you think the country could have been better with you as president?

Definitely. I am not surprised at the state of the economy, but I am disappointed. I am not surprised because we predicted this outcome. During the 2023 presidential debate, we urged Nigerians to pay attention to issues.

On these three issues, I disagreed with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, and former Governor Peter Obi of the Labour Party. It has never worked in any country. When SAP was introduced in Nigeria, it didn’t work for us.

It is not about whether one person is good or bad. If you drag me to the Aso Villa or the Eagle Square and force me to announce these policies, you will get the same result. Anyone who adopts these same policies will get the same result.

Economists would ask if there are countries that have adopted these policies; are there countries within our hemisphere, countries within our state of development, and primary production sectors that have adopted these policies and have worked? I don’t think so.

I am surprised that some personalities were talking about the Argentina model; I am very familiar with this model. If you ask an average Argentine to choose between President Javier Milei and President Bola Tinubu, they will tell you to bring Tinubu, and they will gladly give you Milei.

But you said Atiku Abubakar was wrong when he recommended the Argentina model to Tinubu?

I can say Vice President Atiku Abubakar may be well-intentioned, but he was misinformed. It was an error. If you look at the situation in Argentina, we may get to that position. I hope we are not yet there. We are travelling in that direction, but they are ahead of us in terms of economic misery.