Nigeria’s 65th independence anniversary and Tinubu’s unfulfilled promises

 

Happy 65^th Independence Anniversary my compatriots. The presidency has rightly decided to make it a low key celebration. Indeed, beyond remaining a united entity and surviving another agonising year, what’s there to jubilate? Nigeria has remained a perpetual underachiever. Our situation is akin to the popular slang, ‘big-for-nothing’! six decades and a half after independence, all our development indices are in the negative. Poverty, unemployment, cost of living are on a steady rise. Which way Nigeria?

On this page in my column of September 3, 2025, I reeled out statistics about Nigeria which needs to be repeated here. BusinessDay of Sunday, August 31, 2025, reported that the 2025 Chandler Good Government Index mirrored Nigeria’s snail movement towards holistic development and good governance. Released recently in South Africa, the CGGI 2025, among other things, indicated how Nigeria lags behind peers across the continent, with Mauritius, Rwanda, Botswana, Morocco, and South Africa topping the chart. Nigeria is ranked 116th out of 120 countries globally in the Prospects 2025. This places Nigeria in the bottom five worldwide, underscoring persistent governance challenges.

 According to the 2024 Mo Ibrahim Index of African Good Governance, Nigeria scores 45.7 out of 100 in overall governance, ranking 33rd out of 54 in Africa. Scores lower than the African average (49.3) and lower than the regional average for Western Africa (52.6). In Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perception Index, Nigeria scored 26 out of 100 and was ranked 140th out of 180 countries. On March 20, 2024, the United Nations Development Programme published its most current Human Development Report. What does the report has to say about Big Brother Nigeria? “For Nigeria, the HDI has shown a 22 per cent increase in 19 years but remains low at 0.548, categorising the country as having low human development. The report emphasises Nigeria’s significant loss in HDI due to inequality, estimated at 32.7 per cent. Gender disparities persist, with a notable gap between male and female HDI values and a Gender Inequality Index ranking, placing Nigeria poorly. Furthermore, Nigeria’s Multidimensional Poverty Index indicates that 33 per cent were multidimensionally poor in 2021.”

President Bola Tinubu said it was his long held ambition to preside over Nigeria. God granted him that wish in 2023 and he became the 16th president of Nigeria after a hard fought battle at the polls. Tinubu came with the mantra of eight-point Renewed Hope Agenda. The mid-term report is out and it is damning. As it is said in local parlance, “the street isn’t smiling”. Insecurity, poverty, unemployment, and cost of living have been on a soar. Hope is fading for average Nigerian. Workers are disillusioned. Not even the N70,000 new minimum wage could access them better welfare. Under Tinubu, subsidy on petrol was removed on his day of inauguration on May 29, 2023. Soon after came the floating of the naira, the nation’s currency. These twin policies heighten the premium motor spirit to about N1,000 and exchange rate of the naira to about N1,600 average. Gross devaluation of the nation’s currency has made the purchasing power of our money very weak.

It’s not only the food and other tangible commodities that has witnessed increased prices; electricity and telecommunication tariffs have equally gone up exponentially. On September 1, 2025, the cost of obtaining Nigeria’s international passport was increased by 100 per cent despite mass condemnation. Prior to that, the cost of obtaining driving licence and renewal of vehicle papers have been hiked.  To say the least, lives of average Nigerians have been worsted by President Bola Tinubu. In August 2024, Nigerians went on #EndBadGovernance and Hunger Protests with little succor coming from government at all levels. While it is true that Nigeria now has unprecedented increase in annual budget figures and monthly FAAC allocations to the three tiers of government, there is little to show in terms of good governance. Nigerians are in a state of “Shuffering and Shmiling” as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti said in one of his notable songs.  

On October 1, 2024, to mark Nigeria’s 64^th Independence Anniversary, President Bola Tinubu addressed the country in a nationwide broadcast. I have reviewed what he said last year and will hereby chronicle some of his unfulfilled promises.  On the security front, the president said inter alia that “….our administration is winning the war on terror and banditry. Our target is to eliminate all the threats of Boko Haram, banditry, kidnapping for ransom, and the scourge of all forms of violent extremism.” How has the nation fared since last year? It doesn’t seem the war on terror is being won by security agencies despite putting in their best. There has been mass killing and abductions in at least seven  states namely Plateau, Benue, Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Borno.

According to July 8, 2025 report in Reuters, more people were killed by bandits or insurgents in Nigeria in the first half of this year (2025) than in all of 2024, according to figures released by National Human Rights Commission.  NHRC figures said at least 2,266 people were killed in the first half of 2025, compared to 1,083 in the first half of 2024 and 2,194 for the full year last year. Nigeria's military has been stretched thin, fighting a multi-front war against Boko Haram and other insurgencies in the northeast, banditry and kidnappings in the northwest, herder attacks in the central states and secessionists in the southeast. The situation has worsened lately, with 606 people killed in June alone, including in attacks by gunmen on the Yelewata and Dauda communities in the central Benue state where around 200 people were killed. Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Tony Ojukwu, disclosing the figures during a presentation in the capital Abuja, called for urgent and decisive action from the government.

The president last year in his independence day speech said “As part of our efforts to re-engineer our political economy, we are resolute in our determination to implement the Supreme Court judgment on the financial autonomy of local governments.” To the best of my knowledge, what has happened on this judgement has been the raft of local government elections across several states while the other issue of having LG funds being sent to them directly by Central Bank of Nigeria has not been obeyed as money is still being paid into the Joint State/Local Government Account. It was reliably learnt that state governors have largely frustrated the implementation of this apex court decision same way they have done on the issue of financial autonomy to State judiciary and Houses of Assembly.

Aside the inability to rein in the rising cost of living, one major unfulfilled presidential promise from last year was the National Youth Confab which is yet to take place one year after.  The president had pledged that “This conference will be a platform to address the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting our young people, who constitute more than 60 per cent of our population. It will provoke meaningful dialogue and empower our young people to participate actively in nation-building. By ensuring that their voices are heard in shaping the policies that impact their lives, we are creating a pathway for a brighter tomorrow.” Obviously, this has been “killed in view’ or ‘kept in view’ as said in the bureaucracy.

X:@jideojong