JUNE 12: THE TINUBU ADMINISTRATION’S DANCE OF HYPOCRISY – Obidents

Today being June 12, the All Progressives Congress led Federal Government headed by President Bola Tinubu has declared a public holiday. The declaration of a holiday to commemorate the sacrifice of millions of Nigerians, who stood firm against brutal military dictatorship with some paying the ultimate price, should ordinarily be a noble response by any responsible government.Unfortunately, under the Tinubu administration, observance of the holiday, has become a hollow ritual of hypocritical dimensions as the President and some members of his team, were direct beneficiaries of the struggle, have become in a troubling and tragic way, violators of the human rights, dispensers of violence and promoters of injustice on a scale that belies their much vaunted democratic credentials.In what has become a departure from the usual practice of the President making a national broadcast to commemorate the day, the Presidency has elected to address a joint session of parliament. Expectedly, he has mouthed the usual platitudes, which as always, have not squared with the reality on the group.For an individual who supposedly fled abroad to escape a brutal military dictatorship, President Tinubu has presided over an administration boasting one of the worst human rights abuses since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999. Facts bear this out.Under President Tinubu’s watch in the last two years, Nigeria has become increasing a hostile environment for critics, journalists and indeed, millions of Nigerian citizens as they find their constitutionally guaranteed rights to life, movement and association curtailed security operatives.This tendency commenced early on in life of the administration. As early as late 2023, specifically six months into the life of the administration, Amnesty International, the global human rights watchdog, accused the government of paying blip service to human rights admonishing the administration to “ensure that their words are matched with concrete actions to protect and uphold the rights of everyone in the country”.According to the organization, after six months in office, “President Tinubu had failed to uphold human rights”. According to the statement signed by Isa Sanusi, Director of its Nigerian office, Amnesty noted:“The Nigerian authorities must ensure that human rights are at the centre of their policies, implement findings of previous investigation panels on human rights violations, and promptly, thoroughly, impartially, independently, effectively and transparently investigate human rights violations under the past government to ensure justice and accountability. “President Bola Tinubu and his administration must publicly commit to ending decades of human rights violations by ensuring that suspected perpetrators of past violations are brought to justice and implementing safeguards that drastically improve respect for human rights. President Tinubu’s government must unveil a blueprint for addressing the gross human rights violations that have been committed across the country.“Amnesty International has prepared a detailed human rights agenda for the Nigerian authorities. The government must now respond not by paying lip service to human rights, but by ensuring that their words are matched with concrete actions to protect and uphold the rights of everyone in the country”.The Tinubu administration has not only ignored the wise counsel of the organization but has even gone on to surpass previous government in the violation of fundamental human freedoms. For example, nine months later in September 2024, the global human rights body in another statement censured the Tinubu administration for the unlawful invasion of the Abuja office of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).The DSS action on SERAP has since become the template and the defining rubric of the Bola Tinubu administration’s response to criticism and dissent. As defenceless critics of the administration are plucked Gestapo-style from their homes and offices by paid security agents of the state, spokespersons of the administration and their paid agents on cyperspace try to paint an idyllic picture of a society beholden to the rule of law even as reality screams otherwise. The truth that stares everyone starkly in the face is of a society where free speech is throttled by the state and opponents of the government live in perpetual fear of arrest and brutalization by security operatives paid and maintained by the Nigerian state. Nowhere is this more evident than in the treatment of journalists. In recent times, scores of journalists and even online bloggers have arrested and arraigned on frivolous charges by the state using the Cyber Crime Act. The Act, which ordinarily aims to ensure decency and protection of the individuals’ right to privacy in their personal lives, has become a tool in the hands of high government officials and their associates in hounding critics and settling personal scores.As a group committed to the democratic ideals of rule of law, good governance and promotion of social justice, the Obidient Movement takes serious exception to this embarrassing affectation to the ideals of human rights and the rule of law by the Tinubu administration, which since coming to power two years ago, has done nothing but abridge the access of Nigerians to the fundamental freedoms including the right to life, movement and association, guaranteed them by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). Without mincing words, we aver that the Tinubu administration record in human rights and the upholding of the tenets of democracy, as is its performance in other areas, is abysmal to say the least. Instead of advancing the frontiers of democracy, the APC led Federal Government headed by President Tinubu, has set the course of our democratic journey backward. The woeful performance of Nigeria recently where it failed to get a seat on the United Nations Human Rights council, speaks eloquently to this fact.As those genuinely enamoured of democracy commemorate the sacrifices of those who made a return to democracy possible, the Tinubu administration should not dishonour them especially the memory of those who lost their lives to the struggle by engaging in a maudlin spin of its supposed democratic antecedents.The truth today is that Nigeria is drifting under the Tinubu administration as the leadership of the country after the fashion of Nero, the Roman Emperor, engages in reckless pastime of hounding real and imagined enemies. Two weeks ago, the Tinubu administration released its two-year scorecard. Expectedly, the government in the now hackneyed tradition of the All Progressives Congress (APC), reeled off a list of achievements. The administration in statement signed by presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, said the government had made “undeniable progress”.Were living conditions in Nigeria today not hellish and asphyxiating and were Nigerians not going through the most difficult time of their lives since independence in 1960, the Tinubu administration’s claim of progress would have been downright comical, for it read clearly like a comedy script for a Nollywood movie.Every single line of Mr. Onanuga’s statement dripped with either outright falsehood or poorly concealed half-truth intended to obfuscate the facts and stand truth on its head. The reality we face in our country today, differs starkly from the poorly scripted fiction the APC- controlled Federal Government headed by President Tinubu, is presenting to Nigerians.For an administration, which promised to hit the ground running, it’s stewardship in the last 48 months, has been a harrowing tale of incompetence, mendacity, mediocrity, nepotism, abuse of power and violation of human rights of Nigerians across different levels. From whichever perspective, an assessment is attempted; it is incontrovertible that Tinubu’s best efforts at governance have resulted in a hobbled and prostrate contraption. In these two short years, this President and his government have literally lifted Nigerians from the frying pan of misery, into which his successor, Muhammadu Buhari thrust them, and hurled them recklessly into a fiery furnace of hunger and deprivation, with millions struggling to barely feed their families, and the vast majority, nestling in multi-dimensional poverty. Never, in living memory, has the lot of Nigerians been so deplorable. National morale has hit rock bottom, with millions of young Nigerians, electing to migrate to other countries in search of better life, while those that stay, resort to drastic desperations of survival in a landscape devoid of hope and opportunities. Under the watch of President Tinubu and the APC, life has become a cheap commodity, all over Nigeria, and insecurity, has replaced security, as the choice words in daily life and all news reports. Innocent citizens are mindlessly murdered weekly, in their hundreds, by criminal elements who appear clearly beyond the reach of our security operatives, and in many cases in seeming acquiescence by foot dragging and inaction. Those lucky enough to escape death, find themselves kidnapped, with their families having to sell their land, houses and family earthly treasures, in exchange for the life and freedom of their loved ones held and tortured in bushes and dungeons. Just two ago, large groups of rampaging, bloodthirsty robbers and kidnappers were reported to have separately attacked two different housing estates right in Abuja, the federal capital, with the government neither showing any sense of urgency, nor responding swiftly and successfully. Kidnappers lay siege on citizens, the arrest and detention of human rights activists, online bloggers and public commentators has risen sharply, following the trend in any dysfunctional administration with a very unpopular government. But perhaps, nothing captures the lassitude of the Tinubu administration better than the free-fall of the Nigerian economy, which was seriously injured under the ineffectual Buhari APC administration, but now has been totally paralyzed by poor policies and even poorer knowledge by a cacophony of unsure policies and officials, who prioritize spending on government officials and the President’s personal luxury over investments and interventions in the real and urgent sectors of the economy, and the social sphere . This dire situation was underlined recently by no less a personality than Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, who warned that Nigeria is today, worse off economically than it was before independence, 64 years ago. The implications of the Tinubu administration’s economic cluelessness, are plain for all to see: Galloping inflation, which has remained steady on two digits, diminution in the purchasing power of Nigerians, collapse of the manufacturing sector leading to the exit from the country of multiple foreign companies, intense hunger and rise in criminal activities, as millions of Nigerians citizens are thrown out of work.To properly contextualize this incompetence , the following points are worthy of note:• CBN figures for April 2025 put inflation figure at 24.91 percent• According to a May 2025 World Bank report, unemployment rate in Nigeria is forecast to 4.84% in 2025 with unemployed people in Nigeria projected to hit 5.74m in 2025.• Figures released recently by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that about 63 percent of persons living within Nigeria, which is equivalent to 133 million citizens, are multi-dimensionally poor. Of this, around 65 percent (86 million people) live in the North, while 35 percent (nearly 47 million) reside in the South.• A Situation Analysis of Children and Adolescents in Nigeria (SitAn), undertaken by the Federal Government Government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in November 2024, showed that 10.2 million children of primary school age(between the ages of six to 12) are out of school, today. In addition, 8.1 million children of secondary school age are also not in school. The implication is that 18.3 million Nigerian are either at home or roaming the streets. This unsavoury situation ranks Nigeria as the country with the highest rate of out-of-school children in the world. Sadly, our young people are mostly in the NEET category- not in employment, education or training.The foregoing are inescapable realities under the Bola Tinubu administration and not the Nollywood comedy scripted crafted by the government to hoodwink Nigerians. Continuing in the hallowed Obidient Movement’s tradition of objectivity and fair play, we take a few moments to examine the Tinubu administration’s promise to Nigerians and how it has delivered on them.Not to take up too much time, we will focus on just four key areas. We will use as our guide, the administration’s Renewed Hope document:▪PROMISE ONE: CORRUPTION AND INEFFICIENCY IN GOVERNMENT In the document, the APC said:”We will continue the work of the current administration in reforming the civil service to fight corruption, reduce bureaucracy, streamline agencies and decrease inefficiency and waste.We will streamline the amount that government spends on itself. A cap will be placed on fiscal expenditures for the construction of government buildings and on the salaries and related compensation packages of elected officials and senior personnel in the executive branch of the Federal Government Such expenditures will have a low priority in our administration, Bona tide hard-working members of the civil service are to be commended for their public service and shall be protected.Our administration will adhere strictly to the principle that public funds are only to be spent on the public good and we shall strive earnestly to reduce the overall cost of the Federal Government. We shall also improve and significantly expand the current administration’s efforts to generate revenue by reducing leakages in the financial system and create the enabling environment to expand the private sector initiatives undertaken by the Buhari administration.”▪REALITY ON THE GROUND:There has never been a wider gulf between a promise and its fulfillment. There is nothing in the statement above that squares with the situation on the ground. In terms of government spending, the Tinubu administration will go down in history as the most wasteful and reckless; a spendthrift government with a bloated staff strength over and above any before or that may come after it. The head of the government, President Tinubu himself, has been mindlessly splurging public funds on luxury items on himself while exhorting already overburdened Nigerians to more sacrifices. A new presidential jet and a Cadillac Escalade valued at over one bilion naira, are the only concrete “achievements”, the Tinubu administration can boast off. His promise of a lean and efficient government has therefore proved hollow as is his vow to stamp out corruption, which rather than abate, has become headquartered in his administration as he, the leader of government, junkets the world rather than supervise and give direction to his cabinet. The unfortunate situation is compounded by burgeoning corruption in the government with officials tainted by multiple allegations of graft.The celebrated case of three high ranking APC female political appointees, including a minister, alleged to have diverted billions of Naira of citizens’ welfare funds, has gone cold, underscoring the bazaar of corruption and graft in the government.The EFCC, which is charged with corruption policing, appears fixated on people spraying money at paties, and online personalities who relentlessly criticise them, than bringing to book, past Governors who were clearly recorded on video, packing millions of illicit foreign currency into flowing gowns. Such is the level of disorientation and impunity under the APC!▪PROMISE TWO: ECONOMYOn the economy, Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda stated that:”We will build an economy that produces more of the everyday items, both agricultural and manufactured goods, that define an individual’s and a nation’s standard of living, Compelled by the unassailable fact that an economy cannot exceed the capacity of the available infrastructure to service it, we shall bring the National Infrastructure Policy to life, harmonising it with the National Industrial Policy to ensure optimal development of key sectors and rapid acceleration of our GDP growth.”REALITY:In the section on the economy, the APC projected an annual GDP growth rate of 10 percent for 2023-2027. Real GDP was put at $586.7b for 2024, $645.3b for 2025, $709.9b for 2026 and 780.9b for 2027.As far as projections go, it was reckless as it was harebrained. For an economy whose highest ever annual growth stood at 7 percent in 1974, projecting a 10 percent growth in the wake of the havoc wreaked on it by the Muhammadu Buhari administration, can best be described as a whimsical flight of fancy. The facts bear this out.Figures show that for 2024, the actual GDP growth was 3.6 per cent as against the 10 percent projected while real GDP was US$199.72bn instead of US$586.7bn. Forecasts for 2025 indicate a growth of 3 percent with real GDP of $188.27 billion instead of $645.3b.▪PROMISE THREE: CRUDE OIL PRODUCTIONTinubu made three promises with regard to crude oil production. They were:• Increase crude oil production to 2.6mbpd by 2027 and 4mbpd by 2030.• Increase indigenous share of crude oil production to 1mbpd by 2027.• Achieve stability of petroleum product supply by fully deregulating the downstream sector and ensuring that local refinery capacity will meet domestic consumption needs.REALITY: Like the other promises referenced above, these turned out to be mere sloganeering. The situation Tinubu met on ground in 2023, has taken a turn for the worse. Let’s take them one after the other. Statistics show that average daily production of crude by Nigeria has averaged slightly below 1.5 million barrels per day in the last ten years. With global trends moving away from over reliance on fossil fuels in preference for renewable energy sources, the goal of achieving a daily production of 2.6 million barrels per and up to 4 million barrels by 2027 amid the poor infrastructure and theft of Nigeria’s crude, was surely the height of fantasy. To compound matters for the hapless Tinubu administration, the exit of international oil companies (IOCs) from Nigeria coupled with over 80 million barrels of Nigerians crude shunned by the global market ought to have sobered the Tinubu administration and propelled it to break out of its cocoon of fantasy to face the sobering reality that managing Nigeria’s complex oil sector requires more than skill at propaganda and dissembling.▪PROMISE FOUR: SECURITYUnder security in the section titled, NATIONAL SECURITY THE BEDROCK OF A PROSPEROUS AND DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY FIGHTING TERROR, BANDITRY, KIDNAPPING AND VIOLENT AGITATION, the Tinubu administration noted: “The fundamental responsibility of government is to protect the lives and property of its citizens.We will mobilise the totality of our national security, military and law enforcement assets to protect all Nigerians from danger and from the fear of danger.We will expand and improve upon the use of technology, enhance recruitment of personnel, and bolster existing agencies and systems to achieve this fundamental national security goal.”When I entered office as governor of Lagos, the state was crime-ridden. Safety was uncertain. The population was fearful.With bold, no-nonsense crime prevention reform and creative institution building, we won back our state. It became a safe and secure place to live and to do business. I shall bring the same determined, problem-solving spirit to solving insecurity at the national level”.REALITY:As with every promise this APC Federal Government has made, the promise on security remains a mirage as Nigerians have never felt more insecure in their lives as this present time. With bandits freely invading communities including those in the Federal capital and killing defenceless Nigerians at will, response from the nation’s Commander-in-Chief and his security chiefs have not gone beyond empty threats hurled at the criminal elements who daily make the lives of Nigerians and our valiant young soldiers fighting bandits and insurgents almost bare-knuckled, a dread.Rather than stay home and galvanize our security forces to reclaim our country from criminals, insurgents and all unlawful elements, the President revels more in trips abroad where he is said to be on “working visits”. Facing unpopularity from the suffering masses as a result of weak performance, as he continuously junkets the world, from Paris to London, President Tinubu, instead of getting down to the work he signed up for, has instead, started showing signs of panic and desperation about an election two years away in 2027.In the last few months, the APC has been working frantically, to close up the political space by engineering defection of members of other political parties through all kinds of heinous manipulation, underhand coercion, and outright illegality.Its intent, clearly, is to foist a one party state on Nigerians. Of course, chief of these absurdities is the unconstitutional removal of a duly elected Governor and State House of Assembly in Rivers State, ostensibly to save one of his ministers who had been knocked out in a local power struggle and also, to enforce their hold on a state and it’s people, who have totally rejected the APC. In addition to this unsavoury tactic, across the Federal Capital, election posters of the President adorn every location, even as Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has yet to commence cleaning up of voters register, let alone call for political parties, to commence electioneering. It is certainly the height of chicanery for an administration, which has performed abysmally by any known metrics, to even consider a return to office. The Obidient Movement is confident, that Nigerians, having felt the full measure of APC misrule, would be resolute in rejecting it at the polls in 2027, no matter the illegalities and shenanigans that they may be dreaming will be possible. If the last two years of the Tinubu administration has proved a most harrowing experience for Nigerians, another four years would certainly return the country to the Stone Age.We have no doubt whatsoever, that Nigerians will never be deceived by the usual propaganda, half-truths and outright lies that the Tinubu administration has unleashed in its scorecard to try to hoodwink them that it’s motion without movement of the last two years, represents governance because every ordinary Nigerian citizen, both in private life or the civil service, can feel the sadness and bitterness of not being able to effectively provide for their families. Nigerians will not drink from the APC’s poisoned chalice, now or in 2027 but wil be unequivocal in rejecting the party in all ramifications. The APC-controlled Federal Government is sworn to provide effective service to the people, with the resources of the people, and where it fails in this mandate, its hollow propaganda, now or in the future, cannot save them from its deserved fate, lest Nigeria as we know it today, cease to exist because of their glaring inability to make headway or any visible progress. Nana Sani KazaureDirector, Strategic Communications and MediaJune 12, 2025