Two Harrowing Years And Living In Denial

By Alabi Williams / Posted 26 May 2025

On May 29, it will be two years since President Tinubu was inaugurated to manage the affairs of the country. Nigerians had longed for a leadership that would lighten their burden after Buhari’s painful years. But their party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), was apparently designed to punish the people.

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It was sold to citizens as a party of socialist orientation and ideology, with a promise to deliver a progressive and egalitarian society. So far, the party is neither leftist nor adept at capital creation. You couldn’t pin their government down to deliberate welfarist ideals, apart from intermittently throwing money at problems they stoke.

Last week, the President boasted that the economy is doing well and the harsh reforms are working. Nothing good comes easy, he told delegates at the Renewed Agenda Summit, which held in the State House, Abuja.

He said: “Today, I am proud to affirm that our economic reforms are working. Nothing good comes easy in life. All of you have been through life, and sometimes, only hard decisions can make things easy in the future. Through our Renewed Hope Agenda, our administration pledged to tackle economic stability, improve security nationwide, reduce corruption, reform governance and lift our people out of poverty.”
Indeed, nothing good comes easy for ordinary citizens that are outside government.

In two agonising years, President Tinubu has screwed the hardship nuts tighter on the people. He has pursued reforms that squeeze the pockets of toiling masses to fund luxurious lifestyles of a tiny bureaucracy. Citizens are then admonished to get accustomed to misery because nothing good comes easy.

Nigerians have been waiting since 1999 to enjoy the dividends of democracy, but they are saddled with an unfeeling political class that is disconnected and predatory. It’s additional torture for citizens when a leadership is ensconced in lies and denial.

Now, in the bid to commemorate their second anniversary, they’re doing everything to force the lie that they transformed Nigeria into an El Dorado in two years. They have awarded marks to themselves, and have gone into full 2027 campaigns, clearly outside the rules set by a sleeping electoral umpire.

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City highways are adorned with election posters and the gale of endorsement for another four years for the President has gone feverish. Nigeria does not have the tradition of mid-term elections, but that is what is on, reckless display instead of quality governance.

Despite the awful and overwhelming din by government, citizens do have the obligation to report on how policies and bad governance have reshaped their lives. And if 2027 is going to be decided by votes of the people, it is in the interest of President Tinubu to pay attention to feedback from the civil society, the business community and independent media.

On insecurity, for example, this government is not doing well despite their propaganda. In 2015, APC promoted fighting insurgency as an area ithad specialist knowledge and bragged to end the menace in months. But by 2021, Buhari’s defence budget had totaled N5.81 trillion, apart from the $1bn it spent to purchase military hardware.

Over 11,420 Nigerians were killed within that period because insurgency actually thrived and multiplied. Those numbers were collated by a national daily, in addition to data from SBM Intelligance, Amnesty International, Nigerian Security Tracker, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank. In eight years, this government’s promise to end insurgency, failed woefully.

On May 29, 2023, Tinubu again boasted to end insurgency and insecurity swiftly. But by September 2024, there was a surge, with 13, 346 people killed and 9,207 abducted. That was reported in a Nigeria Security Report done by Beacon Consulting. Today, different coalitions of terrorists, bandits and conflict entrepreneurs now operate in the country, while Plateau and Benue rank highest on the table of states most affected. The roads and forests have been taken over.

In the 2025 budget, Tinubu allocated N6.11 trillion to combat national insecurity, the highest in history. Unfortunately, that has not translated to better results. Even the military is hard hit as dare-devil terrorists now invade formations to cart away arms. The National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, even suggested that military weapons are handed to insurgents by saboteurs.

Let the President hear this as truth, that he has not moved the insecurity needle by an inch, despite huge budgets. And if that were to be used as a basis for his re-election, it may not favour him. Millions of citizens can attest today that insecurity has worsened. More Nigerians have died in their hundreds. Let politicians not sell lies to Mr. President, but if he’s still in doubt, let him ask the Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum.

Last week, Zulum counseled the President not to believe what politicians tell him regarding the state of insecurity in the country. Zulum warned that to end insecurity, President Tinubu should listen to the Military and not sycophants. He added that some soldiers are sabotaging the fight.

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In a television chat, Zulum said, “My plea is that, let us deal with this matter decisively. The President of Nigeria should listen to those that can distinguish their right from their left; those that can tell him the right thing and not sycophants. He has a large heart to do the right thing. But he needs to understand what is happening on the ground.”

In other words, after allocating trillions to fight insurgency, Mr. President has no clue about what is happening around the many insurgency theatres but relies on hearsay from middlemen who benefit from security contracts.

Zulum added that “the army doesn’t have the necessary equipment on ground to fight the insurgency.” When the President and the NSA talk of doing well in tackling insecurity, you wonder where they’re holed up. Security is too important to politicise.

When the President drafted two former governors who operated their states side by side terrorists to manage the Defence Ministry, some Nigerians raised objection. But the President had his way, because he felt he needed to reward them for the votes they commanded in 2023 and for their continued relevance towards 2027.

It is dishonest of government to just sit down and award marks to itself when citizens can’t go to farms and the forests are deserted. Let the government work harder on insecurity between now and 2027. Prosecute suspects and deal decisively with their sponsors.

On the economy, it is improper for government to assume that policies are working without hearing from the people. As far as citizens are concerned, things have never been this hard. The standard yardstick to measure the health of an economy is the wellbeing of the people. It is not in the sheer size of taxes levied and the revenues government expropriate.

Despite rebasing inflation to achieve significant drop in numbers, prices have never really gone down. Some prices are still very prohibitive, three times higher than what this government met in 2023.

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Transportation costs are troubling for commuters and motorists as well, whose expenditure for petrol and routine vehicles maintenance have tripled. Engine oils, tyres, batteries and parts are out of reach of many.

Manufacturing is tough now for those that are still in business. Manufacturers’ apex body, MAN, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), have jointly lamented CBN’s insistence on retaining the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 27.5 per cent since November and the continued reliance on monetary policy tightening, at a time other economies are actually relaxing interest rates.

They’re asking for a reduction to revitalise the economy, boost productivity and reduce inflation. They lament fiscal policies that seek to favour foreign portfolio investors instead of consolidating the local manufacturing base.

In a press statement, the coalition said: “A nation cannot industrialise on the back of prohibitively expensive credit. With the benchmark interest rate held at 27.5 per cent, Nigeria has become the 6th most expensive country to source credit as local manufacturers grapple with an average lending rate of over 37 per cent.”

If operators like MAN, LCCI and NECA say your policies are killing the economy, what else does a government need to make adjustments? Instead, this government continues to relish in self-praise.

Underscoring the point made by manufacturers, the President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, last week, at the Taraba International Investment Summit in Jalingo, noted that without local investors, no foreigners will invest in the country.

He said among others that, “if you don’t invite local investors, to come and invest, no foreigner will come and invest. Foreigners are attracted only when they see prospects for investment. Once they see that, yes, things are flowing, you don’t have to invite them, they will come.”

Without meaning to, Dangote also exposed the collusion of government in encouraging higher prices. He said the Federal Government makes from Dangote Cement 52 kobo for every N1 the cement producer makes, to buttress the fact that government benefits when local businesses thrive. That seems to clarify why prices of cement have continued to go up for ordinary Nigerians who desire to build their own houses.

More than 90 per cent of raw materials for cement are available locally. The final product is supposed to benefit the people but now we know it is government that takes half of the profit and is complicit regarding soaring prices.

The failure of government to develop sustainable energy also hikes production costs for manufacturers. President Tinubu said if he is unable to deliver quality and affordable electricity after four years, Nigerians should refuse to vote him for a second term. After nearly two years in office, nothing has changed regarding the epileptic electricity Tinubu inherited from Buhari.

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Last week, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, confessed that electricity distribution companies (DisCos) have failed Nigerians. He said: “We need to get tough with the DisCos, as they can easily frustrate all the gains we have made…”

Tinubu must get tough on all fronts if he wants to be taken seriously in 2027.

Note: This article was first published by The Guardian Newspaper.
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