Follow Us on Google
Are you better off today than you were 3 years ago?
When Ronald Reagan, the Republican challenger beat the incumbent President, Jimmy Carter in the November 1980 U.S. presidential election, ten short words proved decisive. Reagan had asked the voters in his closing statements of the presidential debate: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”. Reagan used that rhetorical question to frame that year’s election campaign as a referendum on the previous four years of the Carter administration, which was plagued by high inflation, energy crisis, and the Iran hostage crisis.
He challenged American voters to evaluate their personal economic wellbeing, national unemployment, America’s global standing, and the country’s overall security compared to 1976. He also argued that if the answer to those points he raised was “No”, then the choice for the next president of America was obvious. The question Reagan raised has since become one of the most famous and enduring sound bites in modern political history. It also remains a staple of political discourse. That simple question that resonated so strongly with American voters 46 years ago has resurfaced ahead of Nigeria’s most consequential presidential election in 2027. By any objective measure, the answer to the question posed in the headline today is ‘No’. Under Tinubu presidency, Nigerians are worse off today than they were three years ago, except for those in government. Without a doubt, this is the worst period Nigerians are facing since the present democratic dispensation, 27 years ago. Poverty has become a tool of control under Tinubu’s administration. During the campaigns ahead of the 2023 election, Tinubu as APC presidential candidate, anchored his campaign on an 80-page manifesto tagged the “Renewed Hope 2023-Action Plan for a Better Nigeria”. The core platform promised wide-ranging national transformation across several primary focus areas. These include : removal of petrol subsidy, with a promise that the saved revenue would be channelled into infrastructure and other essential sectors like education, healthcare, students loan, among others. On the economy, he pledged a national GDP growth of not less than 6% annually; job creation through the establishment of agricultural and industrial hubs to expand jobs, specifically to revitalise ailing textile industry in the North. He also promised to overhaul the national security architecture to obliterate terror, kidnapping, banditry across the country.
Besides, Tinubu promised to heavily equip the Armed forces with modern hardware, tactical communication gear, and aerial technological superiority. Today, Nigeria has become a theatre of abductions, endless killings and ransom taking. People have been abducted from churches, mosques and schools. The gale of abductions, killings have become intractable because the president has taken his eyes off the ball. He’s preoccupied with winning the next election by whatever means. Protection of lives and welfare of the citizens have taken the backseat.
Tinubu also vowed to double national power generation, transmission, and distribution capacities to provide affordable electricity. During campaign events- including a notable speech in December 2022, in Delta state, he promised to deliver steady power supply. He went as far as saying, if he failed to provide stable electricity during his first term, Nigerians should reject to re-elect him for a second term. This is how major newspapers captured that promise in their front pages. “Don’t vote for me if I fail to fix electricity” – Tinubu(The Nation), “Tinubu stakes Re-election on Electricity Reform”(Vanguard), “No power, No vote”- Tinubu( Daily Sun); “Electricity first, or No second term”, says Tinubu(The Punch), “Judge me by Electricity supply” – Tinubu(ThisDay).
Three years have come full circle since Tinubu barrelled into office with three infamous words, “subsidy is gone”. Nobody(not even his inner cabinet who said that the ill-advised statement wasn’t in the written inaugural speech) knew it was the beginning of a barrage of other policy missteps that have turned into a grievance fest that has upended virtually every aspect of our national life. As things have turned out, savings from the subsidy removal are being used to feed the already overfed political elites. It’s a case of robbing the poor to enrich the already wealthy. Nigeria is broke. Borrowing spree continues amid debt servicing surge.
As the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress(NDC), Mr. Peter Obi said, “what Nigeria needs today is somebody who can create wealth, not somebody who shares wealth”. Predictably, it has been three years of wasteful expenditure, a shock-and-awe period under Tinubu. What has unfolded before our eyes is unbelievably disturbing. It’s the abandonment of almost all his campaign promises, and a deliberate intent on using the awesome office of the presidency to exercise raw political power over Nigerians and key institutions of government.
In the last three years, President Tinubu has succeeded, not in fulfilling the aspiration of Nigerians, but to transform the country and critical democratic institutions in his own image, to favour his own family, business associates and political hangers-on. Democracy is almost dead in Nigeria under Tinubu’s watch. What we have is the emergence of a ‘strongman’ in a democracy in the mould of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the recently defeated President of Hungary, Viktor Orban. Few days ago, the First Lady Remi, regaled us with tales by moonlight that her husband now sleeps at 3am every day, working hard for Nigeria. Perhaps they taught the presidency is a prize to be won rather than a duty to be done.
Other News
Looking back at the last three years of Tinubu presidency, it’s fair to say that some of his economic reforms, such as subsidy removal, students loan, tax reform, local government autonomy, foreign exchange harmonisation, are well-intended. However, their implementation failed to yield the desired results because they were conceived as a bag of tricks rather than promote national wellbeing and inclusiveness, which ought to be the first priority of any competent, compassionate, responsive and responsible president. Today, Nigerian currency, the Naira, is ranked as the “4th worst” national currency in the world.
This singular act has skyrocketed the prices of essential goods and services. The exodus of multinationals underpins the uncertainty and lack of confidence in government’s economic policies. No reasonable investor will stake his investment in a country plagued by insecurity and unpredictable political and economic environment. Whatever this government rolled out on May 29, and will likely rehash on June 12, as achievements or as ‘dividends of democracy’ in the past three years, should be seen for what it’s: a convenient cover that hides a much darker truth of a President on AWOL while the country is on fire.
The recent Oyo school kidnap has once again proved president Tinubu’s low concern about security and lives of Nigerians. According to statistics, as of last count, 3,025 Nigerians were abducted in five months, and no fewer than 1,137 are still in captivity. Over 8,500 Nigerian citizens were reported to have sought refuge in Niger Republic, Cameroon and Chad between May 2025 and April 2026. Their pain will haunt this government. Truth is, no elected president in Nigeria has unleashed the kind of hardship that the Tinubu government has visited on hapless Nigerians.
The unvarnished truth is that there are few concrete things worthy to celebrate in the last 3 years, except that some of us are still alive to witness the abduction of our loved ones – schoolchildren, teachers and clerics. Everyday alive in Nigeria merits a Thanksgiving. That is not how to govern a country. Former deputy Governor of Lagos under Tinubu, Mrs Kofo Bucknor-Akerele, once described what we have today as a “Mafia government”. She may not be far from the truth. In 3 years, Tinubu has exerted raw power across every facet of our national life. In all his abysmal performance, isn’t it shocking that he is urging Nigerians to re-elect him for a second term, in his words, to “make more reforms”.
Speaking at the Africa CEO Forum last month in Kigali, Rwanda, Tinubu asked Nigerians to re-elect him, promising again to dedicate the first two years of his next administration to “more work” and consolidating his economic reforms. He needs reminding that leadership is more than “Emilokan”(it’s my turn. Perhaps he meant four more years of more hardship and insecurity. In a vibrant democracy, where votes count, the outcome of 2027 presidential election would have been clear by now: Tinubu would have little chance of a second term in office. But Nigeria is what it is. Last week, a new civic accountability think tank, released a damning report on Tinubu’s performance. It says that more than a third of his campaign promises 3 years ago, remain unfulfilled. The assessment by AdvoKc Foundation is part of its BAT-O-METER Initiative. It reviewed 53 promises Tinubu made during the 2023 campaign. The report concluded that only eleven of the promises have been delivered. It scored the administration a low grade of 20% in the performance index. 41.5% of the promises were classified as “compromised”, and 37.7% as “broken”.
The Foundation’s Promise Tracker monitors government’s performance across seven sectors, including the economy, education, security and infrastructure. Does this report surprise you? Other than the students loan reform, the report says little progress was recorded in the last 3 years. Worst is the deepening insecurity and failure to fix the power sector. This is ‘talk-and- no-do” government. It’s all about platitudes rather than a conscious effort to fulfill promises made.
