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Nigeria got its independence on 1st October 1960. By every intent and purpose, Nigeria is now a grandfather. Three generations have been born from 1960 till date. An average person who was born in 1960 would have given birth to his first child in 1990 at the age of 30 years. His son would give birth in 2020 at the age of 30 years. His grandson would be six years by 1st October 2026. Tinubu, in his 66th independence day broadcast noted that “sixty-six years ago today, our flag was raised, for the first time, over a free and sovereign nation. Since then, we have journeyed together as one nation, bound by our collective trust in the great promise of Nigeria.”
Nigeria indeed had great promise at independence, as further explained by Tinubu, in size, in bountiful resources, in cultural diversity and, above all, in extraordinary people who can build a giant in Africa; that in this blessed and fertile land they can build a united, strong and prosperous nation; a land of regional authority and global consequence.
However, a philosopher once postulated that if a person is not handsome at 20, strong at 30, wise at 40, and rich at 50, the person should forget that he has ever made it in life.
Historically, at 20, Nigeria has had four military coups, and a tragic civil war that destroyed more than one million lives. Some of our finest military officers including two Heads of State, Major General Aguiyi Ironsi and General Murtala Muhammed were killed. An entire generation of young Igbo military officers and civilians were massacred during the war. Major political leaders were assassinated during the first coup, which included the Head of Government, Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa.
The only good news that happened within the first 20 years of our existence as a nation was the oil boom of the 1970s. The colonial masters discovered oil for us in commercial quantity in 1958. In the 1970s, due to the Israel-Arab wars, oil price skyrocketed and Nigeria enjoyed its first oil boom as an independent nation.
The good news suddenly went bad when General Yakubu Gowon confessed that money was not the problem of Nigeria but how to spend it. Till date Nigeria has been paying the price for that statement because successive governments, especially between 1979 and 1999 spent our money lavishly and witnessed disorganised priorities which led to the deterioration of our public infrastructures. As at 1999, electricity supply has become a major source of the nation’s problems. Without electricity, there would not be any industrialisation.
The second generation which was between 1990 and 2020 was the generation that bore the greatest brunt of the terrible maladministration of the first generation. This period stretched from the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida to President Buhari. Babangida introduced the structural adjustment programme which floated our naira, and the currency had continued to fall till date. Before the floatation of our naira, one naira was almost equivalent to a dollar.
Babangida also annulled the freest and fairest presidential election held on 12 June 2026, which was won by Chief MKO Abiola. The political crisis generated by this annulment swept off President Babangida from office. Chief Ernest Shonekan was installed to head an interim government from 27 August 1993. He resigned about three months later when a court declared his regime illegal.
General Abacha took over power and foisted on the nation a draconian regime that disregarded human rights. Notable politicians and citizens including the wife of MKO Abiola were murdered in broad daylight. Some serving and retired military officers were set up in a coup attempt and sentenced to death. General Olusegun Obasanjo was sentenced to 25 years in jail. General Shehu Yar’Adua died in Abacha’s prison. Nigeria became a pariah nation that was restricted from operating in the international arena.
A peace loving General Abdulsalami Abubakar took over power from Abacha after he suddenly died on the seat on 8 June 1998. Unfortunately, MKO Abiola died in detention during Abubakar’s regime. He organised a transition to the fourth republic, and handed over power to President Obasanjo, whom he released from prison, and allowed to contest for the post of President.
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The initial regime of President Obasanjo and his Vice President Atiku Abubakar restored Nigeria to its powerful economic status, but the gains were tainted when Obasanjo wanted to extend the tenure of his regime beyond eight years. The third term agenda was killed on the floor of the Senate and this created bad blood between Obasanjo and his Vice President, Atiku, which led to Obasanjo withdrawing his support for the presidential ambition of Atiku in 2007.
President Yar’Adua succeeded Obasanjo in 2007 but died two and half years later, and was replaced by his Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan. The death of Yar’Adua affected the eight-year zoning and rotational arrangement between North and South as it pertained to the post of President. In 2011, Jonathan refused to cede power to the North to complete its eight years. The North was to revenge on him in 2015 by denying him eight years in office. They used the All Progressives Congress (APC) to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and President Buhari emerged. Buhari’s presidency witnessed great deterioration of Nigeria economically, socially, and security wise, to the extent that the then Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State described the APC as cancer. At the end of Buhari’s regime, Tinubu emerged.
At 66, Tinubu was right when he declared that “our journey has not always been easy. In truth, it has generally been too hard for too many. We have known moments of great hope and periods of profound disappointment. We have endured war, military rule, economic crises, insecurity and political upheaval. Yet through it all, Nigeria, with the indomitable spirit of its people, has endured.” Clearly, Nigeria was not handsome at 20, certainly was not strong at 30, and obviously was not wise at 40.
The endurance of Nigerians was stretched too far during Buhari’s regime that Nigerians thought that the regime would be their worst. Tinubu assumed power on 29 May 2023. He promised to give Nigerians steady electricity supply and if he fails, let Nigerians vote him out in 2027. On the first day, he announced to a bewildered nation, “fuel subsidy is gone” without any safeguards to protect the vulnerable in our society. The cancer he inherited from Buhari metastasised under his regime that his regime is now regarded as the worst.
Tinubu acknowledged the terrible state of Nigeria under APC when he declared in his speech that “Nigeria was like a sick patient who received news that it has cancer.” Definitely when Nigerians heard that fuel subsidy was gone on the first day of Tinubu’s regime, without any cushioning safeguards, they received the news as cancerous to the economy.
Whereas Buhari brought the cancer, Tinubu caused it to spread. Tinubu met fuel at N195, but it has increased to N1,500. He met naira at about N450 to a dollar, but it has depreciated to about N1,400 per dollar. He met cement cost at about N3,800 but it is now about N12,500. He met about N77trn total debt, but it has ballooned to N166.6trn total debt, and he is still borrowing more. Indeed, there’s a loan of $1.5b Tinubu is eyeing to borrow from the World Bank now. Insecurity is at its worst under Tinubu. He has been away from Nigeria more than 290 days, and about 52 times in just about three and half years. Transportation and food costs are horrible, electricity and employment are absent, poverty is ravaging, roads are deplorable, rule of law and human rights trampled on. No microeconomic index is good.
The only indices Tinubu is parading are macroeconomic numbers that appear more illusory than real for the zero effect they have on the people. According to George Sylvester, when a nation’s growth is on paper, while the people sink in poverty, this is not progress but polished poverty wearing the mask of statistics. Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of ADC, and the main opponent to Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election brought this argument down from the podium to the places where Nigerians make their daily choices: the filling station, the market stall and the breakfast table.
According to him, in April 2023, a N30,000 minimum wage could buy about 118 litres of petrol. Today, a N70,000 minimum wage buys just 50 litres. The salary has more than doubled on paper; the petrol it can buy has fallen by more than half. The average price of one egg rose from about N88 in April 2023 to N261 in May 2026. A sliced loaf was about N500 in April 2023; by May 2026, the average was about N2,000 for a smaller loaf. These may look like small items in a government report. In a family home, they are breakfast.” The obvious truth is that Tinubu has worsened the sickness of Nigeria in every direction.
Tinubu postulated that Nigeria has crossed the Red Sea under him. Unfortunately, after the Red Sea comes the wilderness and desert filled with hunger, snakes and scorpions, and this is where Nigeria is now under Tinubu. Only divine intervention helps a people in the wilderness. As we pray to God for deliverance, let us do our part as humans. Let us choose a different course, peacefully and together, through the power of our votes in 2027.
