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Prof Agwu Akpalla was my lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He taught me Management and was the first Professor of Management in Africa. In his PhD thesis, he espoused the theory that whenever there is confusion at the highest level of governance of any organisation, the confusion spreads down to all the organisation and leads to lack of achievement of the objectives of the organisation.
This theory cannot be truer with respect to the administration of Bola Tinubu as President of Nigeria. Management entails four major functions which include planning, organising, directing, and controlling. From day one of Tinubu’s administration, on 29 May 2023, Tinubu declared on inauguration ground, “fuel subsidy is gone.” He made this major policy decision without a cabinet and without consultation with any human being whatsoever. This is a testimony of a leader who displayed from day one that planning was not going to be part of his strength as a government. This policy was pushed out without any plan to cushion the effects of the high price of fuel on the people. Transportation immediately became unbearable and the inflation rose to the point of 34 per cent before it was artificially brought down to 15 per cent through a controversial scheme of inflation rebasing. Today, fuel price has risen from N195 that Tinubu met it to about N1, 400 today.
Also, the government of Tinubu, in a purported bid to close the gap between the official foreign exchange price and the price of naira in the parallel market, floated the naira in a policy that nearly landed the naira to about N2, 000 to a dollar. The government had to reverse the policy and artificially protected the naira from further decline to the abyss. Rewane Bismarck, a renowned economist, opined that it cost Nigeria more than $8b to stop naira from collapse. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor in charge of floating the naira has since been fired for the present governor, Yemi Cardoso. The workers are always the fall guys for Tinubu’s lack of planning before embarking on policies.
In the ensuing financial mess this country has been pushed into, today, Nigeria is operating three budgets at the same time in an obvious breach of the constitutional provision that the budget cycle of one budget is 12 months. This situation has brought confusion that permeates the legislature and the Ministry of Finance. The rubber stamp National Assembly does not even know the budget that they are oversighting. The Ministry of Finance does not even know the contractors of which budget they are paying. To compound the confusion, Tinubu himself does not even understand the amount of revenue that is coming into the coffers of Nigeria.
In 2025, Tinubu boasted that by August, his regime had raked in the revenue projected for the entire year of 2025. This false proclamation exerted great pressure on the Ministry of Finance as the creditors of the Ministry screamed blue murder at the inability of the ministry to pay them their money despite having a windfall of revenue. The then Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, when he couldn’t sustain the pressure proclaimed loudly and diplomatically that Tinubu lied about receiving all the year’s revenue by August. He corrected Tinubu and revealed that it was about 25 per cent of the revenue that was realised.
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Every discerning Nigerian understood that the days of Wale Edun were numbered at the Ministry of Finance for exposing the lying tongue of his master. Tinubu brought Mrs Doris Uzoka-Anite from the Ministry of Trade and Investment to take over the revenue portfolio of the Ministry of Finance from Wale Edun. Unfortunately, Doris is from Tinubu’s hated tribe of the South-East, so she couldn’t be allowed to take over from Wale Edun as Minister of Finance. Tinubu found a reliable ally in Taiwo Oyedele, the tax master. Tinubu deposed Doris and replaced her with Taiwo as Minister of State for Finance. Immediately Taiwo settled in, Wale Edun was kicked out and Taiwo became the full-fledged Minister of Finance.
The World Bank report stated the great confusion and corruption that exist in the Ministry of Finance. It unequivocally quipped that 40 per cent of all the realised revenue does not make it into the Consolidated Revenue Fund for appropriation. This is a revelation that more than 40 per cent of Nigeria money is corruptly diverted for other unappropriated purposes. The only item the government of Tinubu fulfils in each budget is the amount of borrowing stated in each budget. Whereas Tinubu borrows all the money his government wants, most of the capital expenditure are not funded. What is the borrowed money used for? Even the security budget has not received up to 7 per cent of its budget in 2025. The 2026 budget was approved by end of March, the end of the first quarter in 2026.
Indeed there is chaos in the financial sector of the Nigerian economy and this chaos is spreading throughout Nigeria. Contractors are not being paid, they are protesting. Retired policemen are not being treated well, they are protesting. Resident doctors are not being catered for, they are protesting, Academic staff of universities are not funded, they are protesting. The teachers in the Federal Capital Territory have not been paid and they are protesting.
It is in the area of insecurity that Nigeria is most confused. Killings and kidnappings are going on everywhere in Nigeria. The only solution the government of Tinubu is offering is “the perpetrators will be brought to justice. It will not happen again.” This empty boast was made in Jos after the massacre of innocent Nigerians in Jos. The President couldn’t even visit the victims of the massacre but rather demanded that the victims visited him at the airport to sympathise with him that there is no light that would have enabled him visit them in their places. A President who told Nigerians not to vote for him again if he fails to provide electricity is using the same lack of electricity, almost three years to his regime, as excuse not to perform presidential duties. This is a confused President and the confusion is seen in all our security apparatuses. Little wonder the killings continued even before he left Jos airport for Abuja. Our Generals are killed, our Colonels are killed, our Majors and Captains are killed. Our Lieutenants are killed. Our men in uniform are killed in droves. We have become a nation soaked in tears and blood. In Borno, Kebbi, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Kwara, Kogi, the story is the same.
The confusion that has characterised the presidency of Tinubu has spread to his political party. In three years, Tinubu has had three National Chairmen. They include Senator Abdullahi Adamu, Gov Abdullahi Ganduje and Prof Nentawe Yilwatda. Everything Tinubu does is 100 per cent channelled towards winning elections not towards governing Nigeria. This is why the confusion on Nigeria is choking. When he realised that himself, Vice-President and National Chairman of APC were all Muslims, he fired Ganduje and brought in Yilwatda, a Christian from North Central to placate them for removing Adamu from North Central and replacing him with Ganduje from North West. Many state chapters of APC are loading for implosion because of Tinubu’s leadership style, which believes in pocketing the political party and converting it to his family business. APC has been reduced to a theatre for city boys.
This mindset in Tinubu towards winning elections has brought our electoral process to tatters. Tinubu started with the doctoring of the Electoral Act, through the National Assembly, to produce the worst Electoral Act in the history of elections in Nigeria. The Electoral Act was geared towards emasculating the opposition. When the President realised that the opposition was too strong to be destabilised by the Electoral Act, he commissioned his aides to plant moles in the opposition parties to weaken them and possibly destroy them. Being scared of running on his terrible record with no achievements, the only route he sees to retaining Aso Rock is to run unopposed. He planted Nyesom Wike in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to destroy the PDP and he did a great job of it. PDP is now singing, “on your mandate we shall stand.” The strategy he used was to make Wike the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Tinubu did same with the African Democratic Congress (ADC) where he planted Nafiu Bala Gombe and Hon Leke Abejide to remain in ADC and destroy it. Tinubu revealed this strategy through his Chief of Staff, Hon Femi Gbajiabiamila. Speaking during a birthday ceremony organised by Hon Abejide, Femi asked the lawmaker not to defect to APC, but remain in ADC to scatter and destroy it. He specifically asked the Honourable to bring Nafiu Bala Gombe to him to receive all the support he needs to destroy the ADC. What an express admission! The revelation exposed also that the government is using INEC, through Joash Amupitan, to destroy the ADC. Otherwise how can a supposed Professor of law, who is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) interpret a non existent judgement of the Court of Appeal which declined jurisdiction to mean that a political party suddenly should be destroyed and its leadership derecognised by INEC just because the COA said maintain status quo? This is the power of a chaotic government which intends to spread the confusion to everything and everyone in order to rule the people despotically. The danger, however, is that the confusion spread by a chaotic President may tear the nation apart if the people do not rise up to defend democracy and their destiny.
