The Nigerian brand; when your vehicle is driven by a drunk, reckless driver who does not believe is safety

Two developments last week in the Nigerian political economy space sparked rising concern and worry on the direction the country is headed; it was heading anywhere at all.

The first was the numbers from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which announced that poverty was attacking 635 of Nigerians. The second was a frightening video by the Presidential candidate of the social Democratic party, Adewole Adebayo, in which he accused President Tinubu of undermining the democratic process by ‘shoving” poorly crafted electoral reforms down the throat of the current National Assembly.

If you do not understand how connected the two seemingly different issues are connected, then you do not understand the relationship between politics and economics.

It was during Ramadan. The president is a Muslim, so we said, let us wait, that with the fasting, he would be in a state of grace, and instead of us looking for him, he would look for us. So the president sent out to all political parties, and asked them to come to the Aso Rock Villa to perform their Iftar 9breaking of fast.

So we now set agenda for him and asked all the leaders of the political parties to go there, and we made preparations and we asked that the president be briefed of the moral crises facing the country. We said, Mr. President, you are our leader, you are our father. Please, remember your duty to this country. You are our head of state. This electoral act that you are shoving down the throat of the National Assembly, is not going to be good for this country, an election only one person can win, and you want that person not to lose, by winning and that would result to politicians winning and the people winning. We made several respectful recommendations to the president as the father of the nation.

The president would have said, ‘I have heard you, and will pray over it. But he just jumped up and shouted, “why will I help the nation? Why will I help you? I am contesting. You are provoking me, when I was in the opposition, I suffered; go and suffer your own. Why should I mind? If you don’t want to vote, don’t vote; who said you must vote? yoke laws that favour free and fair election. You can sleep your house? He concluded by saying, ‘politics is a game – the game is sweet when you are winning’

The second is a report from the international Monetary Fund (IMF), which stated that poverty rate in Nigeria had climbed to a frightening 63%, even as the macroeconomic environment had been quite stable under president Bola Tinubu.

The disclosure, according to the Nigerian tribune, came in the IMF’s 2026 Article IV Consultation report and concluding statement following its mission to Nigeria. While praising reforms implemented over the past three years, the Fund painted a sobering picture of living conditions for ordinary citizens, an estimated 27 million of whom, faced food insecurity in the latter part of 2025.

The two issues are not connected, you might think, but they both speak to the brand Nigeria and the way it is being managed. While the former speaks directly to the president’s lack of belief in due process and credible elections, a process that should be the true source of legitimacy for his government, the latter speaks to the outcome of whatever reforms he has been introducing to the economy since the first day he took office as the president of Nigeria.

The SDP presidential candidate’s report says everything: the president is averse to a credible electoral process. He does not want a credible electoral process, and has apparently been using the institutions of state to impose a process that would produce the outcome he had already preplanned.

A situation where the president himself is speaking to citizens in such a way breeds profound lack of belief in the country and the system. What the president was quoted as saying does not sound like something that can ever be connected either directly or indirectly with the Renewed Hope mantra which this government of President Bola Tinubu has been heavily preaching to Nigerians.

However will the people anchor their belief in a country, whose leader speaks to carelessly about an electoral process he is supervising? That he was saying so to some opposition elements says so much about the kind of democratic government he is running.

In an article he wrote that was published on www.lberties.eu, Jonathan Day, while listing the 14 principles of democratic participation, mentioned participation of citizens as number 1. He explained that, “The strongest pillar of democracy anywhere in the world is a free and credible elections; it has to be free and seen to be free by all players – incumbent, opposition and neutral observers. By its very definition, democracy allows the people a voice in charting the course of their government and their future. In direct democracies, this can mean citizens vote directly on the laws they live under. In representative democracy, it means they get to choose who represents them and have a free voice to express their opinions and desires. In either case, citizen participation is the foundation that makes democracy strong.

“Participation is not just voting on election day, although this is surely its most notable form. But equally important are public debate, town meetings, and peaceful protests, among other things. Each of these are forms of participation that help make people informed when it does come time to mark a ballot. Citizens’ groups and civil society help make sure people have the ability to do all of these things and should be supported to ensure greatest participation.”

Day had never seen a Nigeria where Political parties would gathered to meet the president for what could, for more convenient classifications, pass for public debates and town meetings, as prescribed in this democratic process participation and get scolded by the president, who literally did not pretend he was doing anything else other than preparing the arena for his own coronation in spite of the people and whatever their preferences might ever be.

This metamorphosis of Tinubu, from the man who was at the top echelon of NADECO (National Democratic Coalition) a group of nationalists who fought the military until they were compelled to hand over power to an elected civilian administration is hard to understand.

The video where this allegation was made against Mr. president has trended on the social media so much that it could have attracted a presidential response, but none of the president’s spokespersons has so far reacted to the video, preferring to chase those they allege were behind a contrived voice of Tinubu, and apparently preferring the hiring of thugs to prevent VeryDarkBlackMan from protesting against the abduction of teachers and school children in Ibadan.

This, when fused to the IMF report tells you the meaning of cause and effect. This is not saying that the soaring poverty rate was the result of Tinubu’s preference for a faulty electoral process. But it appears so, when one looks at the vast universe of the behaviours, dispositions and preferences of the man in charge of the affairs of Nigeria, what he does, fails do and leaves undone, and what the combination of these and other factors conspire to cause to happen on the economy.

The IMF report was released around the same period when its sister institution, the World Bank released its own damning report, saying that 139 million Nigerians live in poverty. Although the federal government was quick to repudiate this report, claiming the institution didn’t get the facts correct, it must also be recalled that in April, the same World Bank accused the same federal Government of hidden expenses from the federation account.

But this, we must recall, happened around a time there were reports of direct deductions from the allocations to states some huge sums of money that were said to have been paid to the account of governor hope Uzodinma of I Imo State, for what was said to have been funds for the reelection of President Tinubu.

The World Bank report says there are deductions from the federal allocation; already, there were discovery of deductions from state allocations. Even if what the world bank saw was different than the deductions transferred to Hope Uzodinma, did that not constitute illegal deduction? The fact that those deductions were made for the benefit of the president’s reelection efforts cannot make this legal.

Citizens whimpered a bit and the country continued its drift. Such an illegal deduction that was transferred to the private purse of a person for the purpose of running the re-election of the incumbent president should have attracted a lot more than the whimpering of a handful activists. It should have attracted high-octane national outrage that should heave the very foundations of the nation.

But it doesn’t appear as if Nigeria stands for anything anymore. There are no minimum standards of corruption and national disgrace; no sacred areas that cannot be violated. We have become an anyhow republic where having been arrested on corruption charges has become important items on the curriculum vitae of politicians. Those who approach governance with impunity are courted for having stashed enough funds to prosecute the coming election. They are offered choice posts in advance, in exchange for the huge sums they are capable of doling out elections; they are revered for their capabilities for electoral malfeasance.

The Nigerian national brand is worth next to nothing these days. South Africa has ben hounding Nigerian citizens for years, killing and destroying their businesses, without any form of diplomatic kick from the Nigerian government. This is the same Nigeria that mobilized the world to chase away apartheid and win freedom and equality for the black South Africa communities; the same country whose citizens, out fathers, paid monthly taxes to take care of South Africans.

Nigeria was home to the leadership of the African National Congress, the beacon of the liberation struggle. Nigerian universities hosted hundreds of young anti-apartheid campaigners, who found home in Nigeria to prepare for the future political takeover of the country. But poor leadership and corruption have reduced Nigeria to the level where they cannot stand up to South Africa, even when she is messing with the lives of her citizens.

The faces and cries of Nigerians currently stranded for nearly one month at the Nigerian Embassy in Pretoria tells the world of how Nigeria love her citizens. People have left their various homes all over South Africa and gathered at the embassy for evacuation to Nigeria but there are stories about abandonment and neglect in the winter cold of this country hugging both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Who will respect a country that cares so little about the lives and safety of her citizens?

Advertising the country so wretchedly before the world, and particularly in a country so determined to deal so cruelly with your citizens; you re egging the renegades-turned-nationalists on and providing them with good reasons to treat your citizens even more terribly.

Nigeria has apparently never heard of the transformative pledge of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which preaches that “no one should be left behind.” This pledge is also the key driver of the United States and Israeli military, and inspires them to undertake highly risky but brave missions, aimed at saving any of their own – military or civilian - trapped behind enemy lines.

Nigerians have become as endangered abroad as hey are at home. Those unable to flee abroad have been surrounded by bandits and militants who are being tolerated under the funniest of excuses. The Nigerian green passport is among the least respected in the world. But so long as the corruption fountain keeps flowing, it doesn’t bother those in government.

Again, who will respect a country that does not care about the welfare and safety of her citizens?