Presidential aide to Peter Obi: Tinubu’s policies caused less pain compared to Argentina’s reforms

O’tega Ogra, senior special assistant to the president on digital communications, engagement and strategy, has criticised Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, over his recent praise for Argentina’s economic reforms.

On August 11, Obi had said hunger and poverty in Nigeria are a result of incompetent leadership that lacked capacity and compassion.

Obi also said the harsh economic reality facing millions of Nigerians is not a distant statistic but a daily struggle for survival.

He also compared Nigeria’s poverty and inflation rate with that of Argentina,

The former Anambra governor described Argentina’s reforms, which included the removal of petrol and electricity subsidies, currency devaluation, and deep public sector cuts, as a model Nigeria should follow, citing a sharp drop in inflation and poverty rates within two years.

In his reaction on Tuesday, Ogra said Obi’s comparison between Argentina under President Javier Milei and Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu ignores the full economic context and reveals “a clear inconsistency” in his positions.

“Before Argentina’s President Javier Milei began his reforms, inflation was already at around 114.2% then rose to about 289% four months into his reforms with prices more than tripling in 12 months,” Ogra said.

“After Argentina removed subsidies on fuel and electricity, floated the currency, and slashed thousands of public sector jobs completely, inflation spiked even higher.

“When Milei took office in December 2023, inflation was already at 211.4 percent. It peaked at about 289 percent just four months into his reforms before easing to 39.4 percent by June 2025. Prices are still rising, only slower than before.”

He contrasted this with Nigeria’s inflation trajectory under Tinubu, which he said started at 22.41 percent in May 2023, peaked at 34.80 percent in December 2024, and is now down to 22.22 percent.

“Both Argentina and Nigeria are in disinflation phases. The difference is that Nigeria never faced the extreme volatility and human suffering Argentina did,” Ogra said.

He argued that Obi’s endorsement of Milei’s “pain first, stabilise later” reforms abroad, while opposing similar measures at home, shows a double standard.

“Nigeria under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is on the same successful path, only with less pain, no extreme human cost like Argentina’s, and better numbers,” he said.

“It beats me how, according to him, the same medicine is ‘good leadership’ in Buenos Aires, but “incompetence” in Abuja.

“One question though: Why is Peter Gregory so inconsistent? He has continuously rallied against the removal of subsidies and other similar reforms here yet he is praising the even worse shock therapy in Argentina as a model that should been done. Either he doesn’t do his homework well, lacks the knowledge, or he is being disingenuous.”

Ogra, however, urged Nigerians to focus on sustaining reforms, cushioning the impact on citizens, and maintaining policy consistency, rather than “abandoning course for gradualist approaches that have failed in other economies”.