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There is something about President Bola Tinubu. The stories. Everyone seems to know someone who claims to know someone who has a tale to tell about Tinubu and his disposition towards politics. Those who have met him say he is too smart and too ambitious to let go of power in a free, fair and credible election. Prince Adewole Adebayo, presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party(SDP) in the 2023 election has a tale to tell about the president and his political inclination. At a recent press conference, Adebayo relived with cold amazement an encounter that leaders of political parties under the aegis of Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC had with the president at the presidential Villa, Abuja.
The occasion was the breaking of fast(IFTAR) during the last Ramadan. According to Adebayo, leaders of the political parties came with an agenda, presented by IPAC chairman Dr. Yusuf Mamman Dantalle. “We reminded Mr. President of the moral crisis facing the country, and respectfully and persuasively, called his attention to some provisions in the Electoral Act that could hinder a free and credible electoral process, especially at it affects opposition parties”. At this point, Adebayo noted, the president went off the handle. “He suddenly jumped from his seat, and said, “you people are provoking me. Why should I help the opposition? When I was in the opposition, I suffered; they too should suffer. The game of politics is sweet when you are winning”.
Doesn’t that sound like a president who’s defiantly determined to bring the room down to win election? The meeting, Adebayo grimaced, ended on that sour note. For him, it was like a kick in the stomach. You see, when things go wrong in a country, it’s fair to ask: why? Why are things getting worse rather than better since Bola Tinubu was sworn in as President of Nigeria a little more than three years ago? Is rising insecurity, hardship, and a near collapse of the economy, the result of his incompetence, or simply, that of a leader who was badly packaged and sold to the unwary public as a strategist and problem-solver?
Is President Tinubu now completely overwhelmed by the weight of the challenges confronting the country?
Or has he become the biblical Rehoboam of Nigeria? Rehoboam was King Solomon’s son who became the instrument that punished and divided Israel. As the Senate reconvenes today, with insecurity expected to top agenda, there’s no doubt that rising insecurity across the country has wrestled the APC government to the ground. It’s casting a shadow over preparations for the 2027 elections. These are the facts: Between January and May 2026, no fewer than 5,273 Nigerians have been reported killed by bandits in violent-related incidents. According to Nigeria Watch(an organisation that specialises in monitoring violence across the country), 222,137 people were killed in 46,182 violent attacks across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) between 2025 and May, 2026. Out of this number, 2,350 Nigerians were murdered in the first three months of 2026, and 1,402 still in kidnappers’ den. Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), revealed that a staggering N2.23 trillion was paid as ransom by families of kidnapped victims. Reports by SBM Intelligence(a security intel gathering firm) also showed that, out of N48 billion ransom demanded by kidnappers, N2.5bn was paid from 4,722 abductions.
This represents about 750% rise in ransom payment within the last 2 year alone(2023-2025). There’s a consensus that a government that couldn’t rescue an Army General and schoolchildren still in captivity is incompetent and unfit to govern. It’s, therefore, not unkind to say that Tinubu has lost the war against insecurity. Nigeria is now officially listed in the highest-risk category of the United Nations global hunger hotspots, ranked 115th in the global hunger index. An estimated 31 million Nigerians are projected to face acute food insecurity.
If this is not a clear and present danger, tell me what else is? It’s simply the summary of Tinubu’s troubled presidency. Indeed, history is replete with Presidents who ran aground in the office, and how they brought the calamity upon themselves. The first step downhill is that they confuse the destiny of their nation with their own. Second, they exaggerate their accomplishments to give a false impression of stellar performance. But, it’s all a façade, a deception. Look around you, anger is eating deeply into Nigerians like acid. You can feel it, you can touch it. Everywhere you look, sorrow, hunger, frustration, disillusionment are written in many faces.
Recall, two years ago, a 32- year-old mother of nine, hacked a fellow woman to death in Abua in Rivers state. It was in her desperation to escape with a bunch of plantain she stole from the deceased shop. It’s all about hunger, and poverty. “Hunger no dey look face na”. It’s a warning in pidgin. Besides, the value of our currency, the Naira has depreciated to its worst level against major foreign currencies. As of last weekend, the exchange rate was N1,403/$ in the parallel( ‘black’ market), and N1,360 in the official window.
According to experts, the value of the naira has become as bad as Zimbabwe’s currency. Any chance that things will improve in the coming months, ahead of the general elections are uncertain. It is a red flag that tougher times are ahead for Nigerians who have been at the receiving end of this government’s flipflop policies. It’s not too early to ask: how will history judge or remember Tinubu presidency? In three years in power, his policies have broken many hearts. Million of families are in mourning for loss of loved ones kidnapped by terrorists.
Hundreds of businesses have collapsed. Some have relocated to neighbouring countries. Many multinational companies have exited the country. Nigeria is nearing being declared a ‘failed state’, a country where the political and economic systems have become so weak, so vulnerable that the government seems no longer in control. That’s where Nigeria is today. It is only somebody who is blind or downright dishonest that will say, he or she is satisfied with how the country is governed today. Everything has been run down, leveled to the ground. Except the political elites, everyone else is on ground zero now.
This question remains valid: are you better off today than you were before Tinubu assumed office on May 29, 2023? All the indexes used in measuring a country on the right path of development are in the negative territory. The trust that holds the people together to their leader like a glue has been completely torn apart. The nuanced picture of a leader could not be different from who he truly is, no matter how nice he is packaged. Look around who the president surrounds himself with. Are they giving him the unvarnished truth about the state of affairs in the country?
For all that has so far unravelled about Tinubu’s leadership deficiencies, any analytical observer will have noticed that his exhilaration in politics has always been accompanied by a deep insecurity of self, the consequence of sense. This is deeply concealed from conscious or unconscious awareness. Look closely at his entire political career, the authority and power he had hitherto exercised, they all have come under a huge blanket of suspicion. The presidency is a 24/7 job. It requires all eyes on the ball. It is not a prize to be won; it’s a duty to do.
Taken together, President Tinubu is not measuring up on the scale of true leadership. He is, as a friend of mine put it mildly in pidgin, “the President’s performance so far, is like “waka just pass”. This is a description for leaders without vision. Without vision beyond one’s own advancement, a leader loses touch with reality. He is almost paralysed once the goal of ambition has been achieved. A ‘waka just pass’ leader leaves no lasting impressions. He brings misery. Nothing memorable, edifying to remember him for when he leaves office.
At such a fractious moment that we are right now in Nigeria, where truth has become the first casualty, and critics of government policies branded as haters of the president, the story of Tinubu presidency reminds one of what Lyndon Johnson(36th U.S. President) said about the circumstances that brought him to office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. “I took the oath”, Johnson said, “I became President. But for millions of Americans, I was illegitimate, a naked man with no presidential covering, a pretender to the throne, an illegal usurper…” Truth be told, while he promised “Renewed hope”, Tinubu has given Nigerians a dose of hopelessness. Pessimism has supplanted optimism. That’s why a new leadership has become imperative in 2027.
