President Bola Tinubu has said the defects in Nigerian economy immensely profited a tiny elite, which he further described as the elite of the elite.

He warned Nigerians that as his administration moves to fight the flaws in the economy, the people who grow rich from them will fight back through every means necessary.

In a national broadcast Monday evening on the current economic challenges caused by his government's economic policies, Tinubu justified the removal of fuel subsidy and the unification of FX exchange rates.

He said: "the multiple exchange rate system that had been established became nothing but a highway of currency speculation. It diverted money that should have been used to create jobs, build factories and businesses for millions of people. Our national wealth was doled on favourable terms to a handful of people who have been made filthy rich simply by moving money from one hand to another. This too was extremely unfair.

"It also compounded the threat that the illicit and mass accumulation of money posed to the future of our democratic system and its economy.

"I had promised to reform the economy for the long-term good by fighting the major imbalances that had plagued our economy. Ending the subsidy and the preferential exchange rate system were key to this fight. This fight is to define the fate and future of our nation. Much is in the balance.

"Thus, the defects in our economy immensely profited a tiny elite, the elite of the elite you might call them. As we moved to fight the flaws in the economy, the people who grow rich from them, predictably, will fight back through every means necessary."