In a country grappling with mass death, crushing poverty, and deepening insecurity, the Nigerian government appears more invested in power plays and hollow accolades than in the lives of its citizens. From preventable tragedies on dangerous roads to record-breaking maternal mortality and economic collapse, the Nigerian government continues to display a chilling disregard for the very citizens it was elected to serve. A case study in political indifference, governance has become a game, the lives of ordinary citizens mere pawns in a political chessboard few care to play responsibly. Nigerian politicians overlook the plight of everyday citizens, focus on their own political ambitions and are now gearing up for the 2027 elections in the face of rapidly worsening standards of living.
Bloodshed has become commonplace and citizens are increasingly desensitized to the scores of Nigerians killed everyday due to a variety of easily avoidable factors, while death tolls continue to rise. The government takes no action and is negligent when any action is taken or completely denies the rising insecurity in the country. More than 600,000 deaths due to insecurity were recorded between May 2023 and April 2024, according to data by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This report, however grim, only accounts for deaths at the hands of bandits, and doesn’t even cover deaths that occurred due to the incompetence of the Nigerian government, leading to the popularized phrase, “Nigeria happens to you.” Botched military operations, collapsing dams and fuel related explosions are just a few of the obscure ways Nigerian lives are snuffed out at the hands of a government that simply doesn’t care whether its citizens live or die.
Inflation has soared to its highest in three decades and the naira is slumping to record lows, pressured by acute dollar shortages. Prices of food, cooking gas, medicine, fuel, and public transport have shot up, squeezing household budgets. Over the past weekend, Eid el-Kabir celebrations took place across the nation, but several livestock traders have lamented poor sales due to citizens’ inability to purchase food outside of their regular rations. Poverty is also widespread, with over 56% of Nigerians living below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. The most recent factors to blame for this are the misguided reforms haphazardly implemented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as part of an attempt to revive the country’s failing economy. Notwithstanding these obvious failings, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) continues to applaud the president for a job well done in his first term.
Unfinished projects, mismanagement of funds and unkept promises are more hallmarks of a country where the people are barely considered in governance. Citizens are taxed relentlessly, with little to show for it. Despite heavy borrowing, several projects remain unfinished and abandoned. In December 2021, the Nigerian Society of Engineers reported that the country had a staggering 56,000 abandoned projects estimated at over ₦17 trillion and counting.
Now, in 2025, citizens are left to grapple with yet another callous display of disregard for transparency in the form of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway. Even with the ever worsening economic crisis, the Nigerian government saw fit to begin construction of a 700 kilometre stretch of road infrastructure which will take about 8 years to complete and will gulp a staggering ₦15 trillion, with the claim that the coastal highway would improve connectivity and foster economic growth along Nigeria’s southern coastal region. With no Environmental Impact Assessment or transparent procurement and no clear cost breakdown, this project is already shaping up to be another national failure.
To make an already questionable decision even worse, the government, in preparation for the construction of the highway, demolished several properties and businesses which they claim obstructed the right of way of the proposed coastal road, displacing hundreds of people living in the affected areas, with the most notable demolition being Landmark Resort and Beach. A $200 million investment, the sprawling hospitality and leisure beach was home to over 80 businesses, providing more than 4,000 direct jobs and generated over ₦2 billion ($1.5 million) in annual revenue. Paul Onwuanibe, owner of Landmark Beach Resort, claims he was given only 7 days to vacate the premises, which he obtained in 2007, before it would be torn down. Monetary compensation may be given to affected property owners, but what amount of money can make up for the loss of people’s sources of livelihood or the loss of the vast majority of the beaches in a coastal city?
Construction of the highway is yet to make any significant progress. Only up to 30 kilometres, making less than 5% of the highway has been commissioned, and even this is yet to be completed, contrary to the president’s claims, with several portions still appearing unfinished.
Socio-political organization Afenifere has alleged a conflict of interest in the project on the part of the president as the coastal highway contract is being executed by Hitech Construction Company, a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group which also spearheads the Eko Atlantic City project and was awarded the contract for construction of the highway without any competitive bidding. When inaugurating the project, Tinubu referred to Gilbert Chagoury (the contractor handling the project) as his “partner,” fuelling speculation that his interest in the highway is more personal than he may be willing to admit.
Trust in the Nigerian government is at an all time low, and this is because the government has done little to inspire trust. One would expect that with all the alarm raised over bad governance, Nigerian politicians would be more sensitive to the optics and public perception of their lifestyles, even if they don’t care to actually govern but this seems to be too much to hope for.
Just a few weeks ago, media personality Reuben Abati had words for officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) for yet again blocking several roads and subjecting Lagosians to traffic jams lasting hours, simply because President Tinubu and his convoy were present in the state. This is not the first time this has happened — almost every time the President has visited Lagos since he was sworn into office in 2023, road users suffer.
Last month, social media was in a flurry as several users discovered the Instagram account of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike’s son and witnessed firsthand his luxurious lifestyle. Several people expressed rage at the vagrant displays of wealth at a time when several Nigerians cannot even afford to feed multiple times a day. We do not deny that politicians’ children are generally quite well-off and that this level of wealth is commonplace amongst their ranks, but public office is a sensitive terrain and tact is invaluable when one is so prominently in the public eye. In stark contrast to Wike’s response to the backlash (complete indifference), the Mongolian Prime Minister resigned this month in the face of protests and public outrage over alleged corruption and public perception of his son’s lavish lifestyle. The thought of any Nigerian politician resigning over such is laughable, so little care is taken by them generally to avoid such backlash. .
In all this, the attitude of the Nigerian government towards criticism from its people has been nonchalant at best and aggressive at worst. Civic freedoms are gradually being stripped away while protests largely fall on deaf ears. When overwhelming force and draconian disciplinary methods aren’t being used to intimidate critics and ward off further plans for demonstrations, criticism is met with cold silence. Alongside physical dispersal of protests, there is an ongoing clampdown on freedom of speech via social media and other mass communication avenues.
In July 2021, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) in a worrying case of interference with press freedom wrote a letter to broadcast stations instructing them to limit reporting and commentary on rising insecurity in the country.
There is currently a “Social Media Bill” making its way through the Senate, having passed its first and second readings. The bill, amongst other things, seeks to curb government criticism online by mandating bloggers to register local offices and join a national association for bloggers, presumably to make it easier for them to be monitored and tracked by the government. Similar concerns around the clampdown on freedom of speech have been raised concerning the judicial interpretation of the Cyber Crime Act 2015, with institutions such as the U.S. Embassy, British High Commission, Embassy of Finland, Embassy of Norway and the Canadian High Commission condemning the misuse of the law in suppressing free speech.
On this year’s Democracy Day, President Tinubu cancelled the scheduled nationwide broadcast during which he was slated to deliver the annual Presidential State of the Nation Address and chose instead, to give this address at a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja, in an unprecedented move further highlighting his indifference and borderline disdain for Nigerians. He spent the first portion of his speech thanking the NASS for their contribution to the fight for democracy highlighting the role of lawmakers and exalting them for their long history of upholding the law. Have ordinary Nigerians not been instrumental in the fight for democracy? Are the efforts of Nigerians only acknowledged if they are members of the political elite? The contents of his address were even more absurd than his choice of audience, indicative of a leader so out of touch with the reality of his constituents that one must wonder if he actually resides in the country he speaks of.
He boasted of the supposed strides his administration has made in improving the ailing economy, announcing that the GDP has grown by 3.4% in 2024, with Q4 heeding 4.6%, the “highest quarter growth in over a decade.” He went on to highlight the other areas where he believes his administration has excelled; inflation is easing gradually, price of food staples are steadying, states no longer need to borrow to pay salaries, the naira exchange rate has stabilized, in less than a year over 100,000 Nigerians including 35,000 civil servants have benefitted from affordable consumer credit.
This self-gratifying speech was made against the backdrop of nationwide protests organized by the Take It Back Movement which took place while the address was being delivered. In typical fashion, the government had mobilized the police and other security agencies to beef up security across the country in anticipation of the protests, which aim to direct attention to what the organisers have described as “two years of misrule, hardship and insecurity” under Tinubu’s government, citing in particular, government crackdown on dissent.
While Nigerians are expected to suffer in silence, politicians have already begun making plans, rubbing their palms greedily and nursing their own political ambitions in anticipation of the 2027 elections. The ruling APC has already endorsed president Tinubu to run for a second term, while Nigerians actively bear the brunt of his abysmal performance during his ongoing first term. Tinubu’s ambitions have been bolstered by numerous high profile defections to the APC, which are highly questionable considering the fact that the party is widely blamed for the worst cost of living crisis in recent memory, but as Tinubu put it, “That is the game.” Meanwhile, the supposed opposition parties have put aside their duty of critiquing the ruling party and ensuring good governance. Political ambitions across the board have taken precedence and all eyes are on the 2027 elections, not minding the fact that we are only halfway through 2025.
Speaking in Abuja on the 24th of April, PDP’s acting National Chairman, Umar Damagun emphasized, “This election in 2027 is not about how many governors you have, or how many leaders. It is about Tinubu and Nigerians.”
That Nigerians have to be reminded of their place in a supposed democracy is proof of how far left governance has veered — it is more about the “game” of politics than the act of service, and the citizens who these politicians are called to serve are little more than obstacles on their path to realising their political ambitions. “Disheartening” does not even adequately describe the cloth of helplessness and irrelevance that Nigerian citizens have been swaddled in, and while we can only hope that the 2027 elections are able to alter the nation’s political landscape, history shows that this is very unlikely.
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