Editorial: CHECKING ON TINUBU’S TWO YEARS
As President Bola Ahmed Tinubu coasts toward two years in office on May 29, 2025, it is worth taking a step back from the minute-by-minute outrage locomotive and the online hate box to properly assess what Tinubu has actually done – and what he has not. Every record released from Asso Villa of late has sounded like an improvement in the economy, but the reality around citizens livelihood is actually stuck in Tinubu’s garage and showing no signs of movement.
The president has consistently promised better days ahead for Nigeria’s economy, he promised employment to Nigerian youths, he promised to fight insecurity, yet he seems not to have scored very high on anyone of these. At least up to this point of his two years in office.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference, at its first plenary meeting of 2025 in Abuja not long ago, gave a detailed prognosis of the state of the economy and the polity under Tinubu’s watch. According to the CBCN President, Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru, youth unemployment, insecurity, poverty, corruption, and electoral fraud are some of the ills plaguing the country.
However, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President responded that while some of the governance challenges in the areas highlighted by the bishops remain, “it is important to state categorically that our country has made tremendous progress in all areas since President Tinubu assumed office about 22 months ago.”
Onanuga insisted that in terms of insecurity, Nigeria is more secure today than it was in 2023, noting that “in the last two years, over 8000 criminals – bandits, armed robbers, Boko Haram terrorists, and kidnappers – have been eliminated, and over 10,000 Nigerians – primarily women and children have been rescued from their abductors. As a result of improved security in our communities, especially in the North-West and the North-East, farmers have returned to their farms, and our country has seen increased food production, which is currently driving down prices of essential commodities. Farmers in Kaduna, Kebbi and Jigawa are eloquent testimonies of the improved security ambience. Similarly, farmers growing cash crops in many parts of the country are experiencing a new life of boom and prosperity.”
He revealed further that realising the importance of youth to national development and economic growth, President Tinubu’s administration has designed programmes that will catalyse youth employment, enhance their capability, and harness their ingenuity, creativity, and talents for better productivity. These programmes, including 3MTT, NATEP, LEEP, IDiCE, NiYA, and the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund, were designed to create over 10 million new jobs for young people.
“On the economy, Tinubu’s administration has stabilised the economy from the precarious situation it inherited on assumption of office. Our balance of trade has improved, foreign reserves are in a stronger position, inflation has moderated, our currency is gaining strength against convertible currencies, local refining capacity has tremendously increased on the back of Dangote Refinery and NNPCL Refineries in Port Harcourt and Warri, going on stream.”
Onanuga noted that Chatham House, a United Kingdom International Affairs policy think tank, praised President Tinubu’s teams’ economic management. “In an article, Chatham House said Nigeria’s economy had been most competitive under President Tinubu in 25 years due to his reforms.”
While it is easy to parrot about an improvement of the economy in the media, it’s another to have the improvement telling on the faces of the Nigerian masses.
It is rather baffling that President Tinubu’s aid should waste so much energy parroting figures and relaying on what foreign think tanks say to buttress his claim of better life for Nigerians in the last two years. Onanuga could have just taken a look at the faces of the Millions of Nigerians struggling to access food. We have come to the same scenario of suffering which prompted the poet, Niyi Osundare to describe the state of the nation graphically years ago that: “more and more Nigerians are becoming hungry, ill and dehumanized. Next time you are in a crowded place, look very well at the faces you see. You will notice a sea of preternaturally grey hairs and faces prematurely wrinkled like crumpled foil paper.”
What I am concerned with here is the immense difference in the economic atmosphere reeled off in the accounts and figures emanating from the presidency and the reality on the streets.
Take for instance, the gruesome fact of the economy in the period under review led to one protest or the other such as the #EndBadGovernance protests in 2024. It was also a sustained mass struggle in 2024 that forced the government to reluctantly approved a ₦70,000 minimum wage. A national minimum wage that is inadequate—especially when compared with the exchange rate and current inflation levels, which erode its value daily. Despite the massive increase in the prices of basic commodities and overall cost of living, the federal government has not yet commenced full payment of the new minimum wage. Some state governors, despite having access to significant public funds, have also refused to implement it.
At another level, insecurity and kidnapping have become rampant in Nigeria, with a significant surge over the past two years. The North Central, especially Benue and Plateau states, and Northwest regions have been the hardest hit, where terrorism and banditry have spread rapidly. The rise in kidnapping cases has been linked to various factors, including the deepening economic crisis, unemployment, and widespread poverty. The consequences of kidnapping are devastating, as victims’ families and communities are often forced to pay enormous ransoms, resulting in financial hardship and emotional trauma.
As recent as April 7, 2025, a nationwide protest was held against the Cybercrime Act, the declaration of emergency rule in Rivers State, and the deepening economic crisis across the country also do not speak well of Tinubu’s two years.
At the level of corruption, while the Tinubu administration has made symbolic moves—such as suspending officials accused of corruption (e.g., Minister Betta Edu) and launching investigations into previous administrations’ financial dealings—corruption remains widespread. Political office holders, continue to live extravagantly, looting national resources through jumbo allowances.
Tinubu does deserve credit for his aggressive efforts such as bringing programs designed to enhance agribusiness, modernize livestock farming, and achieve food security through sustainable practices, and Introduction of a student loan scheme, increased NYSC allowances, and significant investments in digital literacy and tech entrepreneurship, it has actually not delivered anything close the people’s expectations on what was promised them.
And while it is easy to parade feathers of tremendous progress in all areas adorning an unrealistic cap, it is another to make the reality on ground bow to the evidence of official records being paraded. Tinubu’s approval ratings belie the evidence that he is in the mist of what could be the most smashing two years of his four-year tenure in Asso Rock.
