2nd April 2026, NewsOrient, Opinion, Column, News, Governance And Development, Law And Society, By Sam Egburonu Esq.
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The ongoing debate on the person responsible for the sufferings of Nigerians is as provocative as it is tiresome.

Interestingly, both sides of the debate seem poised to make it one of the determinants of our voting pattern in 2027 Elections.

For me, I have listened with keen interest as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s marketers try to defend what the opposition today describe as the ruling government’s ‘wickedness and indolence,’ two alleged twin weaknesses that combined to leave Nigerians miserable and hungry.

While the opposition blame Tinubu for mismanaging Nigerian economy and for being unable to stop insecurity, his marketers posit that Tinubu, through his Renewed Hope Agenda, “is laying a new economic foundation for Nigeria,” which, according to them, “will secure Nigeria’s future.”

They say the Agenda aims at “fostering economic growth, enhancing social welfare and to build a $1 trillion economy by 2030.”

So, as 2027 approaches, the answers to the issues so raised, should determine how and for who Nigerians should cast their votes.

This, permit my scepticism, is assuming there will be free and fair elections and that the people’s votes will count.

Back to the debate, is it true that Tinubu is actually laying a new economic foundation that will secure the future of Nigerians?

The observed attitude of majority of Nigerians to the said reforms confirms they are yet to be convinced that the primary focus of the reform should be a demand on them to further tighten their belts.

So, if there is anything to this Agenda and if part of it’s modus operandi is that the people must make personal sacrifices, it is then incumbent on Mr President, each of his associates and appointees, including every elected lawmaker to lead by example as a way of explaining to Nigerians that sacrifice is the right way to go.

But one is concerned over actions of leaders at different levels and over Federal Government’s failure to engage marketers with the right words to explain things to Nigerians.

Truth is that Nigeria under Tinubu is not the first country to contemplate fundamental reforms. So, what he said he wants to do is not strange or bad at all. It is in fact what is expected of any serious leader of the Giant of Africa at a time like this.

In recent history, many countries have undertaken such major economic reforms to protect the future of their people. They include
Ghana, Chad, Ethiopia, and Zambia, among others.

Beyond Africa, when we talk of successful reforms at the global level, the examples of Malaysia and South Korea readily come to mind.

Now, what were the secrets of these countries’ successes?

Economic experts may dig out so many approaches that brought out their successes.

Whatever may be the case, I am of the view that it cannot simply boil down to an unfeeling demand on the common people to starve and tighten their belts, while being killed or kidnapped by bandits and terrorists unchallenged effectively. No!

One feels there are more humane, more purposeful actions that are incumbent on the leadership to do in the circumstance.

Such actions will include absolute and true commitment by the country’s leadership to ensure that the people are alive to witness the envisaged future successes.

Please, I am not hinting at another palliative jamboree – that wicked ploy to enrich top government officials at the expense of the people. No!

I am rather talking of a situation where the topmost leadership cadre is able to demonstrate capacity to shun vested interests that have nurtured the old system.

Some available data show that Chile did this in the 1970s and 1980s. Korea did the same in the 1980s. Ghana’s ongoing reform programme is a nearer example.
Of course, the story of Malaysia is there also to motivate Nigeria.

Truth be told, Nigerians are currently facing the worst economic hardship ever. Demanding further belt tightening will require demonstration of more commitment by the leaders themselves.

Slaughtered daily in their homes and outside, kidnapped or pursued from their farms by armed herders, bandits, kidnappers and terrorists, hungry Nigerians blame their President for their predicament.

Since the killings, banditry and terrorism are no longer in dispute, the debate today is if it is wrong for the people to blame their elected President for their sufferings and hunger?

They say they do so simply because he is their Executive President.

But just at the weekend, after the National Convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, where Tinubu was handed APC Presidential ticked for a possible re-election, former Katsina State Governor, Bello Masari, raised this same issue of who the people should blame?

He recalled that Tinubu recently asked media executives “to hold local governments and states accountable.”

Mr President’s argument suggests that Nigerians are blaming him over certain things they should have blamed other officers.

Masari said: “The problem in Nigeria is that we don’t situate problems where they belong.

“Certain problems are local and belong to the local government; others are federal in nature, but you lump them all on the head of the President.”

True, but only to an extent. One may ask: Isn’t President Tinubu Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces? If he is, why is anybody trying to suggest he is no longer the Officer responsible for the protection and wellbeing of all Nigerians?

When he removed fuel subsidy and floated the Naira at the dawn of his government, did he consult state governors or local government chairmen first? The answer is no, he did not.

From the very minute Asiwaju took oath of office, he demonstrated he has taken power and is in charge in Nigeria.

So, under his leadership, should starving Nigerians be blamed for identifying him as the Officer responsible for their wellbeing and sufferings?

Is it not foolhardy to expect Nigerians routinely kidnapped, abused and killed to spare in their blames and criticism the Officer that is their Commander-In- Chief?

Yes, I hear some people swearing that one of Tinubu’s greatest achievements so far is that under his watch “more money is now going to the state and local governments.”

Since no State Governor or Local Government Chairman has so far denied this claim and the monthly releases displaying billions of Naira being shared monthly, one is inclined to believe the claim to be true.

Some analysts have also said this is part of the reasons the governors joined Tinubu’s political party in their numbers – perhaps to continue to get more money from him.

Even Tinubu’s bitterest critics cannot say “the achievement” of putting more money in the hands of state and local governments is not good.

The only snag seems to be that some Nigerians say this financial windfall is yet to impact positively on their wellbeing over three years after Tinubu’s take over of power!

So, Tinubu must be told that until the extra resources now in the hands of state governors and local government chairmen truly reflect on the wellbeing of common and hungry voters, they may never agree with Mr President that an achievement is being recorded under his watch.

Yes, it was Dr Chimaroke Nnamani, during his tenure as the Governor of Enugu State, in his epochal lectures, who consistently argued that “at our stage of development, dividends of democracy translate to food for the people, healthcare delivery, education for sons and daughters of the very poor, good roads, electricity supply and such like.” His thesis remains largely true today in Nigeria.

Also, if, as some promoters say, the impact of Renewed Hope Agenda-led reforms must be long term, I think the sacrificial lambs deserve clear explanation on why they must starve today.

For long, dating back to the military era, leaders of Nigerian governments have repeatedly preached this same bizarre sermon of “tighten your belts” while they, leaders, swim in affluence, flying golden private jets and riding glittering Limousines, escorted by long convoys.

In Tinubu’s civilian government, the pattern is the same, even worse, his critics will swear.

So, if I were Tinubu, I will focus on delivery of dividends of democracy before 2027 Elections.

— Samuel Hezekiah Egburonu Esq, a Lawyer, veteran journalist and literary scholar, is a current affairs analyst. He can be reached at Phone: +2348023165410. egburosam1@gmail.com