Nigeria – An Assessment of President Tinubu’s Performance so far

By Tony Ndikanwu, Nigeria

The Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been Nigeria’s President for the past 14 months.  This analysis is an attempt at gauging the pulse of the nation and finding out what people think about him after being behind the wheel of leadership for more than one year.

Expectations were quite low when Tinubu became President of Nigeria. To begin with, the election that made him President was rocked by a lot of controversy. A lot of Nigerians didn’t believe that he truly won the election. There were accusations of rigging and manipulation of results. He was however sworn in as President on May 29^th, 2023, and went to work right away.

Prior to Tinubu becoming President, Nigeria experienced a period of stagnation and apathy during the years of his predecessor, Muhamed Buhari. Buhari, was sick for most of his tenure and seem to spend a lot of time outside of the country taking care of his ailing health. Nigerians expected the same if not worse from Tinubu because of how frail he looked during the election.

The President has however surprised even the most sceptic Nigerians by how active he has been since he became President. One thing to note is the fact that his presence is felt in the decisions that are made in the governing of the country from day to day. The President is active, and people can tell that the decisions that he takes are his decisions. It is very evident that Tinubu is his own man, that he calls the shots and isn’t dependent on any cabal.

Another quality that the President has exhibited is his boldness in taking decisions. The specter of petroleum subsidy was hanging over the country for decades. Various governments that preceded him had tried just to cut down on subsidy and met with great opposition sometimes leading to their demise. President Tinubu however got rid of the subsidy from his first month in office and met with very little opposition. How this has affected the economy has not been fully ascertained since he has only been President for just fourteen months.

President Tinubu has made some strides into the financial sector just by the quality of people that he has appointed to handle Nigeria’s finances. The appointment of Mr Yemi Cardoso as central bank governor has brought some confidence and optimism into how that establishment is run. This has resulted in the stabilization of the Naira after a freefall when he first took control of the government. The President can’t be blamed for the freefall of the Naira because his predecessor left him with an economy that was almost battered beyond repair.

Also, the President has really improved the state of security in the country. There have been fewer cases of armed robbery, kidnappings, and lawlessness since he got into office. There has been some stability in this regard since he became President. There are fewer incidents of lawlessness and in cases where there are, these incidents are quickly addressed.

Finally, one cannot say with certainty that President Tinubu’s tenor so far has been very successful. The ordinary people in the country feel the hardship that was caused by years of neglect and abuse by the preceding governments. The pulse of the nation is one that is uncertain about the future. Most people do not see a light at the end of the tunnel. The usual problems are still there with some getting worse.

One thing that can be said for the President though is that things are not better, but it feels like the tide has been stemmed. There seems to be some kind of stability. It will take another year or two to truly assess the performance of the President. Nigerians meanwhile, are not fully optimistic but are hopeful that the future will be better.