President Tinubu’s Mid-term Performance
By Onorakpene Eviosekwofa
Hunger on the faces of Nigerians reflect a nation in which the people are not only miserable, but have lost hope in the leadership of President Tinubu.
The President Tinubu-led APC government, to cover her tracks deliberately assembled a propaganda team that’s similar to the 2014 APC propaganda machinery that kicked Jonathan out of Aso Rock – the social media is agog with defenders of the president. The good news is that Nigerians are now wiser.
As President Bola Tinubu celebrates his second year in office today, May 29, 2025, generally, his performance has been extremely disappointing during the past two years. Why president Tinubu promised 10% growth rate in 2023 to 2027 is a puzzle that he alone can explain to Nigerians. Despite the humongous monthly allocations from the proceeds of the removal of fuel subsidy that governors receive from the Federal Government, there are no visible infrastructure in the states to justify these monies! Many state governors have deliberately refused to pay the minimum wage of N70,000 to workers.
Tinubu’s unplanned removal of fuel subsidy and floating/devaluation of the Naira brought rude reality on Nigerians on May 29, 2023, when President Tinubu announced that “fuel subsidy is gone” and “exchange rates deregulated”. Within two months more Nigerians had lost their jobs than at any point in Nigeria’s history. Prices of goods and food stuff went above the roof top – leaving Nigerians losing the little savings they had before the removal of fuel subsidy!
If only promises and good intentions are enough to guarantee excellent governance, Nigerians should be sleeping with their two eyes closed, – insecurity is ravaging the nation, kidnapping, armed banditry, killings of people in Plateau and Benue states are rampant. When the rubber-stamp National Assembly planned a security summit which the Minister of Defence first opposed and later capitulated, the idea still remains nothing but an idea hanging in the air – Boko Haram terrorists are brazenly killing our military men, attacking military barracks with impunity.
President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope document promised to assiduously work for the masses of Nigeria. Although, Tinubu was elected by the smallest number/percentage of votes since 1999, virtually all those votes were cast by the middle and low income classes, as well as the poor and destitute – based on promises made to them by president Tinubu. However, two years into his tenure the hard, stark truth is that Nigerans are dying – in fact, many Nigerians are walking corpses!
The two years of president Tinubu’s economic policies have impoverished middle and low income classes of Nigerians, and those living in multi-dimensional poverty more than in 2023! The economic decline of suffering Nigerians have been captured as follows: by 1985, 25 years after independence, Nigeria’s GDP per capita declined to $868. By 2010, it grew to $2,120, but by 2024, it plummeted to $824, the lowest since independence. Without doubt, “Nigerians were much better off at independence than they are today”, according to Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank. As usual, the president’s media aide, Bayo Onanuga, without any experience of macroeconomics, attacked Dr. Adeshina for saying the truth!
The beneficiaries of Tinubu’s economic policies are majorly banks, insurance companies, Oil and Gas companies, Discos and GSM operators! For reasons too difficult to explain, the government’s fiscal and monetary policies are delivering the greatest pain to the largest numbers of Nigerians – this was not the promise made to Nigerians by Tinubu in the build-up to the 2023 presidential election. To make matters worse, the government seems to have run out of ideas on the way forward to address the pervading hunger in the country.
Tinubu is scoring many ‘firsts’ – never in the political history of Nigeria has any president launched a reelection campaign, two years into his administration. Just a week ago, 21 APC governors, at a special convention of the party endorsed president Tinubu as the sole candidate of the party in the 2027 presidential election – this endorsement is based on the excellent performance of Tinubu. With the adoption of Tinubu as the sole presidential candidate of the APC for the 2027 election, governance has taken flight – state governors are also busy strategizing to win their reelection in 2027.
In December 2024, Tinubu defended his borrowing strategy, saying that he took the decision not to inflict pain on Nigerians, but because of his commitment to infrastructural development. This is against the grain of his promise that the removal of fuel subsidy and floating of the Naira will create more opportunities for government to increase her revenue, and more monies will be shared to state and local governments. And, so what happened to the humongous monies generated from the removal of fuel subsidy?
To add lpg gas to an already burning petrol fire, president Tinubu requested the National Assembly’s approval to secure external loans of $21.5 million and ¥15 billion, along with a grant of €65 million, as part of the federal government’s proposed 2025–2026 external borrowing plan.
If the new borrowing request of roughly N38 trillion ($24.06 billion) is approved, Nigeria’s debt will rise to N182 trillion. Given the country’s estimated population of 227 million people, this means every Nigerian would, on paper, owe about N801,762, a figure that raises serious questions about sustainability and long-term repayment capacity.
Nigerians deserve to know how the new borrowings will contribute to GDP growth over the next five to ten years, as well as their impact on poverty alleviation, job creation, and other key development indicators.
On paper, especially the data that the aides of president Tinubu put together, security, the economy, inflation, employment, prices of food, etcetera, Tinubu is doing an excellent job – I call on president Tinubu to disguise himself and take a walk on the streets of Abuja, Kano, Jos, Lagos, Ibadan and Benin to experience the daily suffering of Nigerians and to directly hear their lamentations – the economy is snarling on Nigerians.