By May 29, 2025, Tinubu’s government will clock two years in office. In a democracy, two years is 50 percent of the time a President has spent in office in a four-year term presidency. In the United States of America, elections are held every two years to give the people an opportunity to rejig their government, if it’s not working. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, elections are held every four years, especially the legislative elections, that are not staggered in nature. This means that no matter how terrible a government is, the people are stuck with the government for the next four years. Nigerians are stuck with the legislature they have and the Tinubu they have for the remaining two years. This becomes important to appraise dispassionately the performance of this government for the last two years.
The first thank you gift Tinubu gave to 37 percent of Nigerians who elected him was the ill-advised removal of fuel subsidy from the inauguration ground without consulting any human being as President. This jerked up fuel price from about N195 to about N617 naira. As if this was not enough, Tinubu purportedly floated the naira, making the naira depreciate from about N420 per dollar official rate to almost about N2,000 to a dollar before scaling down to about N1,600 to a dollar after the government had spent almost $8b to stabilize it, according to Bismarck Rewane, the Economist.
This singular act skyrocketed the price of every item in the market. Foreign companies like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a pharmaceutical company based in the United Kingdom, P&G, Unilever, PZ Cussons, etc, folded up and left. The Manufacturing Association of Nigeria stated that 50 percent of manufacturing companies have folded up in Nigeria with more collapsing everyday. Nigerians can longer afford the basic necessities of life. They cannot afford food, clothing, and shelter. Inflation rate is now at more than 34 percent before it was fraudulently rebased to 24 percent without the prices of goods coming down. Rewane has doubted the inflation figures churned out by this government.
Things became so bad that even children went to the streets to protest against hunger and hardship and were captured and arraigned for treason. The hunger followed them into the prison as their ribs were visibly showing at the courts where they were arraigned. They fainted one after the other in court, prompting the judge to hurriedly adjourn the trial. Any government that does not have the sympathy of children at heart is satanic.
The security situation in Nigeria now is disheartening. A pregnant woman delivered a set of lovely twins in captivity. The leader of the gang threw the twins to his dogs for food in Zamfara. The lawmaker representing her constituency in the National Assembly lamented this situation on the floor of the House. Gov Zulum has become an IDP governor himself as he relocated to live with the internally displaced persons in Marte, Borno State. He warned the Federal Government about the re-insurgence of Boko Haram and their imminent attacks if nothing was done. Of course nothing was done and the terrorists struck, killing our soldiers in a very brutal and humiliating way. Farmers were executed in droves and today more people have become internally displaced.
Zulum revealed that politicians and some military persons are leading informants to Boko Haram. It’s pathetic that Tinubu’s security agencies that gave him security report to declare state of emergency in a peaceful state like Rivers State could not give him the security reports on the politicians and military personnel who are the leading informants to Boko Haram. Anyway, what magic are you expecting from a National Security Adviser who cannot secure his Toyota Hilux Pick up vehicle in a praying ground.
The security misnomer in Plateau State is more pathetic. Hundreds of people murdered in their sleep for no offence known to them. The Governor Mutfwang screamed, and on top of his voice, but more people were murdered. The Federal Government accused him of incompetence and chided him to go and defend his people with bare hands in front of heavily armed terrorists. From inception of Tinubu’s regime, more than 300 people have been killed in Plateau State, while Tinubu was either holidaying in Lagos during Christmas or in Paris. The same scenario of heartless insecurity is replicated in Benue State. Many people have been massacred in cold blood in operations targeted to deprive them of their lands, crops, and property. Governor Alia called them terrorists. Agatu is now the epicentre for terrorism in Benue State.
Kidnapping has become an open business in Nigeria. People in Nigeria and the terrorists now buy and sell human beings captured by them. The terrorists set a ransom price on the kidnapped victims. The family members of the kidnapped victims bargain with them until they reach an agreement on the “commodity” they are selling. Painfully, at times, even after paying the ransom, the kidnappers still kill the victims. In the South East, kidnapping is still rife. A member of the Anambra State House of Assembly was kidnapped and murdered even after ransom of over N100m was paid and his corpse deposited on the second Niger bridge. Sit-at-home still operates in some states of the South-East for fear that the security agencies are unable to protect anyone who dares come out on the sit-at-home day. People have been known to be killed and their property destroyed for disobeying the commands of the outlaws.
In the South South, Edo State has become the centre for cult activities, including incessant herdsmen attacks on the indigenes. It was this apprehension of incessant attacks on the citizens that prompted the unfortunate attacks on presumed hunters from Kano State who went to Rivers State to hunt and were killed in Edo State on the suspicion that they were terrorists because of the guns they were carrying. Confusion everywhere in Tinubu’s two years in office. Same story goes to South-West.
The fight against corruption in Tinubu’s government is a huge joke. As a former APC governor once said, if anyone comes into APC, his sins are forgiven. Indeed, the former Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Betta Edu, was suspended by Tinubu for alleged misappropriation and misapplication of funds. She was sacked eventually. Her sins were in abeyance as a surety she doesn’t join any other party. Any day she ventures into any other party, she will be in court the next day. The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of being a greater criminal than the people they arrest for criminality. He said that the EFCC steals the property of people recovered by them. To him, the EFCC corruptly resells recovered people’s property in their care at ridiculous prices, giving example of selling a property worth N5billion recovered by them for a paltry sum of N300. In my widest imagination, I never knew that the EFCC was that corrupt until I heard it from Senator Akpabio.
The NNPC is another cesspool of corruption under Tinubu’s administration. Incidentally, Tinubu is the Minister of Petroleum. Money was budgeted for the repair of the refineries in billions of dollars. The NNPC deceitfully told Nigerians that the refineries had been fully repaired and would commence operations in December, 2023. Till date the refineries are not working. The board has not been called to account for the billions of dollars spent on the purported repair of the refineries. Wait until they ever defect to another party and you will hear their story of corruption. Ask Godwin Emefiele, the former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, and he will tell you that after this government finished dealing with him for daring to frustrate the plans of APC to use money to influence the 2023 election, he could not recognise which property was his and which ones were not his.
Already the 2025 national budget has been padded, according to budget experts, by N7 trillion naira. At the end of the day this money will vanish into the pockets of cronies of the government. Gov Zulum called them government of contractocracy. The fight against corruption is simply a tool by this government to intimidate and manipulate politicians to defect to APC or desist from supporting the opposition parties.
Tinubu’s administrtion has been a failure in the area of electricity supply. Power is the ability to do work. In the absence of power, productivity is malnourished. This regime unconstitutionally and discriminatorily divided Nigerians into bands to determine the quantum of electricity they get from the national grid. Whether it’s a division between the rich or poor, only this Minister can tell. The people in Band A are being extorted with exorbitant tariffs with no light in sight while the lower bands have been discarded completely. Many parts of Lagos have not seen light for six months. There was a time most people in the North West didn’t get power supply for almost seven months. Nigeria is in darkness under Tinubu even unto Aso Rock which is now planning to spend N10billion to provide independent solar power supply to the Villa.
If these two years are anything to go by, Tinubu has failed and may not book a return ticket back to the Villa come 2027.