President Bola Tinubu seeks a second term in office. A second term of office is his right and entitlement to seek, of course. But it is also incumbent and indeed, the duty of every Nigerian to demand that the President must give account of the first four years.
However, by the look of things, it seems he is not quite interested in discussing how he managed the sovereign put in his charge in the last three and half years.
The President has not created any platform so far to give Nigerians a proper score card or report of his stewardship. The kick off of the ruling party’s second term campaign in Kaduna last week was an opportunity. But President Tinubu missed it. He even mixed things up to boot: he blamed the opposition for the hunger in the land.
He also spoke nonchalantly about the immense privation that has been brewed in the cauldron of the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last 11 years
Nevertheless, the President must render an account, he must answer a few hard questions before he can set about asking Nigerians to vote for him a second time.
Here are some of the queries out there as articulated by this column:
- What is President Tinubu’s health status?
Many Nigerians are quite upset about the increasing failing health of their president. The fact of this is self-evident. His failing physiology and his continued long absence from duty is quite rankling.
With about 291days spent abroad so far, and most of it apparently in foreign hospices, Nigeria is almost on autopilot. It is time President Tinubu came clean about his health. Nigerians deserve to know whether their No. 1 is fit and capable of leading the country.
- How many Nigerians are wallowing in acute poverty?
But President Tinubu has never addressed this grievous matter.
In fact, he treats it with the cavalier levity of a drunken man.
When confronted by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria recently, he angrily retorted that hunger was always with us. The President surmised that it was part of the duty of faith-based missions to feed the lamb.
Yet again, at the flag off of the APC campaign rally in Kaduna last Saturday, he blamed political opponents for hunger in the land.
This only suggests that the President is not cognitively aware of the magnitude of the problem confronting him or the issues besetting the country he claims to run. We can therefore deduce that he himself needs intensive management. So how can he manage a country?
- Where’s the electricity you promised us?
This question represents a classic self-indictment of President Tinubu’s first term. Troubled by the very poor state of electricity power in Nigeria as he bidded for power in 2022, Tinubu had put it on video record that if he didn’t provide Nigeria stable power supply after his first term in office, he would not deserve a second term, therefore, Nigerians should not vote for him.
It’s not only that the President failed woefully on his promise, it was so bad that the Presidential Villa was taken off the national grid and a multi-billion Naira solar system was installed. It must be put down to another clear pointer to a poor cognitive self-awareness. It’s a straightforward case: no stable electricity, no vote.
- What’s the purpose of Igboho’s Iru-EKun?
Nigerians woke up mid-year to see the well known Yoruba irridentist, Sunday Adeyemo (well known as Sunday Igboho) brazenly commanding an armed militia. According to the separatist, he needed his army to compliment the regular Nigerian military and to defend the southwest region. His target was 50,000 troops but the number quickly ballooned to 80,000 and still spiralling, he told reporters.
State governors and prominent Yoruba personalities are bankrolling it. Igboho is seen in online photos with some of his troops kitted and armed to the teeth; better than Nigeria’s regular troops.
Nobody has explained to Nigerians why Igboho is building an alternate army. Not the the National Security Adviser (NSA). Not the National Assembly.
Igboho, the man who escaped from a raid of his Ibadan residence by the Directorate of State Security (DSS) in 2021 is now a hero to be feared by the same agency. DSS personnel were injured in that encounter, many people died. All that is forgiven; the erstwhile villain is now licensed to raise an army, apparently!
- Can President Tinubu explain, then reverse his nepotistic appointments?
Many Nigerians have bemoaned the embarrassingly lopsided appointments of President Tinubu. They say that no other head of government since independence has shown this level of unfair and nepotistic allocation of appointees, appointments and resources. Even the Head of the Federal Character Commission is Yoruba!!! And that is the agency that’s charge with ensuring that the President complies with the federal character provisions of the Constitution.
In a widely diverse country, President Tinubu has displayed much naked unfairness, inequity and injustice. This has vastly affected Nigeria’s unity and harmony. Why would all the other ethnic groups vote Tinubu for a second time?
- Would the President be kind enough to give accounts of the proceeds of subsidy removal?
According to Taiwo Oyedele, Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, savings from petrol subsidy removal and Naira devaluation reached about N15.8 trillion from July 2023 December 2025.
But these twin policies have thrown a large proportion of the populace into penury and with not many infrastructural projects to show for the huge payday.
Why should these policies not be reversed as opposition candidates have proposed since they have not yielded positive benefits?
- Which projects have been accomplished by President Tinubu In nearly 4 years?
The most prominent infrastructure projects by the Tinubu administration remain the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Badagry-Sokoto Highway. But these projects are not nearing completion by any margin. In fact, it is feared that they are non-priority projects and may never be completed by Tinubu even in two terms of office.
Other key activities of this government are soft projects like the national students loan scheme, the cash transfer, among others. There has been little accountability in structuring these albeit impactful initiatives. Many people therefore scuff at them.
As many roads as the Works Minister, David Umahi claims to work on, as many of the other roads remain impassable.
The Benin-Asaba Highway is a notable case. The major road became a signpost for neglect by this government. Nigerians spent days crossing what had become their Bermuda Bypass!
Then it came out that the all important Highway had been surreptitiously concessioned without the knowledge of Nigerians.
- Numerous loans, huge debts, what outcomes?
Last Wednesday, it was revealed that President Tinubu has sought approval for yet another loan totalling about N29 trillion. As usual with previous requests, there were no specific and targeted projects, only omnibus request to develop education, health, etc. This will probably go the way of other loans, frittered away and unaccounted for.
As at June this year, Nigeria’s total debt stock stood at about N167 trillion (about $120.93 billion). Public debt rose from about N50 billion in March 2023 to the current level of N167 trillion.
From the above figures, President Tinubu has borrowed more money in three years than all his precedecessors put together – yet nothing to show for it!
- What has President Tinubu done about Nigeria’s IDPs since 2023? And Leah Sharibu
This administration has shown a befuddling nonchalance towards the plight of Nigerians consigned to the wretched camps of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria.
It is estimated that about 3.5 million hapless Nigerians are abandoned in derelict camps across most of the north. Some have been displaced for almost two decades and their homesteads occupied for good.
While the previous governments made efforts at relocation of IDPs, President Tinubu seems totally unconcerned about these stranded citizens. No thought has been spared for the IDPs since 2023.
Remember Ms. Leah Sharibu who refused to denounce her Christian faith in order to gain freedom along with other Chibok School Girls? About 100 of the 276 abducted girls including Sharibu are still unaccounted for, 12 years after. Not a word from this President!
- Will Tinubu participate in presidential debate this time?
President Tinubu has managed to evade debates, interviews and town hall question and answer sessions.
He got away with it in 2022. Many Nigerians are saying today that: no debate, no voting. We must hear from our President before we vote for him.
A thousand and one questions lay before President Tinubu ahead of the 2027 elections. For instance, the damaging of the agricultural sector and reversal of the gains of the Muhammadu Buhari years, etc.
But let the above list of 10 suffice for now.
The odds are indeed stacked high against Tinubu ahead of the elections in 2027; it explains why some Nigerians are chanting: Tinubu must go!
Last line : President Tinubu flies out again!
Exactly 30 days after President Tinubu returned to Nigeria, he has baled out again to Saudi Arabia. Nigerians are in the dark as to how many days he has been scheduled to stay.
He returned from France on 29 September after an extended stay beyond the statutory 21 days allowed for official hand over to his deputy.
The President has already stayed away for 291 days in three years. That’s more than one year out of three!
Some Nigerians speculate that the President is beset by serious health challenges which is why he would jet out indefinitely during a campaign period.
It is also a time of severe terror onslaught in Plateau and most recently, Taraba States in the northeast. Over 60 Nigerians were killed in one day and thousands displaced.
Under normal circumstances, a President should be heading to the killing fields to commiserate and reassure the citizens, and not to jet out!
This must be the most opaque government in this age!
