By Tunde Rahman

Economists and commentators have written and said much about the positive trajectory and indicators signposting Nigeria’s economic growth. These indicators indicate that the reforms embarked upon by President Bola Tinubu since assuming office two years ago have begun to engender successful outcomes. The reforms are paving the way for economic recovery. The facts are self-evident and they speak for themselves too.

According to a World Bank report, the GDP grew 3.4% in 2024, the highest in a decade. Inflation is tumbling and is currently at 23.7%. The government is meeting its debt obligations. After the Central Bank of Nigeria cleared the forex backlog amounting to $10 billion, the debt-service-to-revenue ratio fell from around 100% to below 60%. Foreign reserves, which instill confidence in investors to come in and exit with their profits as they wish, now stand at $38 billion.

Just as remarkable is how national revenues have increased exponentially, resulting in unprecedented increases in allocation to sub-nationals. Such growth has been a significant shot in the arm, giving them the much-needed fiscal impetus to fund projects and cater to the welfare of their people. The increased revenue also helps partly finance key infrastructure projects such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road and the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway. Last week, President Tinubu inaugurated the completed Phase 1, Section 1 (30km by six lanes) of the 750km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.

These strides have been phenomenal. But there is more work for the government to do. The administration also has a few challenges to tackle. The macroeconomic gains highlight the need to impact microeconomics. The positive economic statistics must impact the living standards of the most significant number of our people. They must affect their living standards, especially the cost of essential goods and services. The government needs to reduce unemployment significantly, just as it needs to make the country much safer.

However, as I have often argued, President Tinubu’s achievements in two years are not mere happenstance. They did not come by wishful thinking. They result from a bold vision outlined in his Renewed Hope Agenda, uncommon courage, and unrelenting hard work.

This piece explores just two stories that speak to the courage, audacity and determination of President Tinubu to do things differently. The first happened a day before President Tinubu’s trip to Rome, Italy, on May 17, 2025, for the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV. Invited by the new Pope, the President’s decision to attend the event, accompanied by Catholic bishops, was remarkable in the context of the President’s religion and that of his vice-president. In the build-up to the 2023 election, the opposition claimed the two leaders would turn the country into an Islamic state. That did not happen. Instead, they are running an administration that is blind to religion. Christians, Muslims, and adherents of other religious leanings get their dues.

I was at the residence to see the President around 2 pm just after he had performed the diplomatic ceremony of receiving letters of credence from some ambassadors. From that period, he was in his home office, working on files and receiving governors, top government functionaries and other guests who had visited till around 11 pm. Those who visited included Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, Secretary to the Government of the Federation Senator George Akume, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi(SAN), Minister of Solid Minerals Development Mr. Dele Alake, Minister of Marine and Blue Economy and former Osun State governor, Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola, as well as top businessmen including Alhaji Samad Rabiu of BUA Group. In that long period, the only other thing that went into that office was his lunch. It’s not an isolated pattern. The fact deducible from all this is a bewildering work ethic. President Tinubu works unusually long hours. He devotes virtually all his time to the Nigerian project. So, his success is a product of hard work.

His uncommon courage and audacity are well known. His policy options, particularly removing the unsustainable subsidies on fuel and forex, were things leaders before him found appropriate and desirable if the country must move forward but lacked the courage to implement. Fuel subsidies were corruption-laden, while the multifarious foreign exchange windows incentivised arbitrage. For instance, between January and June 2023, fuel subsidies alone gulped N3 trillion, and the bulk went into the pockets of the oil cabal.

An important subtext of this story could be glimpsed from Mr. President’s response when I asked him about the influx of governors, lawmakers, and top chieftains of other parties into the All Progressives Congress. He replied: “Yes, they are coming because they have seen the success of our policies. The economy has virtually rebounded, and the country has turned the corner. Do you think they would defect to our party if I’m not doing well, and the policies have turned awry?”

President Tinubu hardly allows any opportunity to bask in well-earned moments of glory to elude him. He often says, “I have a bragging right here. It is my turn to brag over this.”

The President is, however, not unmindful of the fact that the macroeconomic gains achieved by his administration thus far have not fully impacted the streets and pockets of our people. He has also spoken of this. At the inauguration of Phase 1 of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road referenced earlier, President Tinubu appealed to Nigerians to be patient with him.

“I know your expectations are still very high at this stage, and our people are still going through difficult times. I take this opportunity to appeal to all Nigerians that hope is here, and it is realisable,” he said, adding: “You would be proud of the benefits; there is light at the end of the tunnel. Inflation is coming down; we have eliminated the corruption in the exchange rate; the corruption in fuel subsidy is now limited to the barest minimum. It is all for you, the people; we are reducing the cost of manufacturing and encouraging manufacturing locally. We give all incentives for everyone to abide by the principle. May God bless our country; may God bless Lagos State and keep our fighting soldiers safe,” he said.


-Rahman is a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Special Duties.

By Festus Adedayo

As Ngugi wa Thiong’o says in his Wizard of the Crow, (2007) ire is more corrosive than fire. Make no mistake about it: President Bola Tinubu is angry. When Tinubu was similarly angry, I wrote a piece entitled Tinubu the Ap’ejalodo and his strange fish friend (September 18, 2018). That fable was one of the stories that helped to tame the greed of pre and post-colonial Yoruba society, as well as any tendency within it to play God.

By that 2018, Tinubu had made up his mind to replace Akinwunmi Ambode as governor of Lagos State. The piece, using that anecdote, was to warn him not to take the place of God. Suchlike stories helped to shape the moral man in Africa. His cosmology was governed by anecdotes, lore and mores which prescribed moral codes. For centuries, these sustained the associational and moral forte of Africa. Anecdotes that restrained a potential emperor from treading the path of ruination were told to children, even in their infancies; same about petty thieves who came to ghastly ends. For instance, the destructive end of greed was foretold in pre-colonial Yoruba society in the emblematic story of Tortoise and the scalding hot porridge on the fire he stole and covertly put on his head. It burnt his scalp. Permit me to retell the anecdote.

Set in an African village, the story is that of a young wretched fisherman (Ap’ejalodo) who was ravaged by failure. He was unable to catch enough fish over the years to rescue him from the pangs of lack. One day, however, as he thrust his fishing hook into the river, it caught one of the largest fishes he had ever seen. Excited, Ap’ejalodo pulled his awesome catch up to the river bank and proceeded to yank it off the hook.

As he attempted to carry it to the basket, however, the fish began to speak like a human being. Ap’ejalodo was at first afraid but he eventually pulled himself up and listened to the sermon of the strange fish. Singing, Ap’ejalodo, mo de, ja lo lo, ja lo lo… (Fisherman, here I come…) the fish pleaded to be rescued by the fisherman.

It promised that if the fisherman spared its life, in lieu of this rescue, he should ask for whatever he wanted in life. Excited, Ap’ejalodo let it off the hook and asked for wealth. Truly, by the time he got home, the ragged clothes on him and his wife had become very big damask agbada and aran respectively, with their wretched hut transformed into a big mansion. Both now began to live the life of unimaginable splendour.

After a few years, the couple was however barren and the wife entreated Ap’ejalodo to go fishing again and ask his fish friend to rescue them from the social shame. As he thrust his hook into the river again, it caught the strange fish and the earlier process was repeated. This time, he asked for a child and the strange fish granted it, giving him children. Over the years, the fisherman magisterially summoned the fish through same process and the fish bailed the couple out.

Then one day, Ap’ejalodo and wife were just waking up from their magnificent bed when a blinding and intruding ray of the sun meandered into their bedroom. Enraged, Mrs. Ap’ejalodo couldn’t understand the audacity the sun had to intrude into their sacristy. Couldn’t it respect the privacy and majesty of the richest couple in the land? She then angrily commanded Ap’ejalodo to go meet his fish friend and ask that they be given the power to control the temerity of the Sun and other impertinent celestial forces.

Off Ap’ejalodo went to the river bank, thrust his fishing hook into the river and again invoked the strange fish. And Ap’ejalodo made his plea. The fish was peeved by the fisherman’s greed and audacity.“You were nobody; I made you somebody and you now have everything at your beck and call. Yet, you want to compete with God in majesty and you will not allow even a common sun to shine and perform the illuminating assignment God brought it to perform on earth!”

The fish angrily stormed back into the river and as Ap’ejalodo, downcast, walked back home, his old torn and wretched dress suddenly came back on him, his mansion transformed into the hut of the past and the couple’s latter wretchedness was more striking than the one of yore.

After writing that piece in 2018, as fate would have it, I was wrong and Tinubu was right. In spite of the several entreaties to him, Ap’ejalodo had his way and Ambode became history. Today, Ap’ejalodo has warred with all his governor nominees since 2007. He attempted to remove all of them but only succeeded with Ambode. On each occasion, he made himself the victim of his disagreements with his mentee governors, answering to that Oscar Wilde statement that you cannot be too careful in the choice of your enemies. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has joined the infamous train of victims of Tinubu’s ferocious anger.

As far back as January of this year, sullen murmurs of bees of power in Alausa and Aso Rock hinted that Ap’ejalodo was angry. While Ambode’s err was failure to offload requested funds, Sanwo-Olu’s was his indiscretion and temerity. An alleged female friend of the governor was said to have helped him courier Lagos funds to Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to enable him win the 2023 governorship. In violation of the laws of power, Sanwo-Olu thus outshone the Master. While he won his Lagos election, Ap’ejalodo lost. Ap’ejalodo actually didn’t mind him losing the election, with the aim of cutting his wings but regaining his overlordship of Lagos in a subsequent estimated victory in the court. At a meeting of the two, while the governor swore his innocence, Ap’ejalodo was said to have derisively laughed him off, maintaining he had security reports which affirmed the transaction. The stroke that broke the camel’s back was the governor’s effrontery in removing Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, Ap’ejalodo’s protege who had been overtly rude to the governor.

Twice in a week, Ap’ejalodo has ridiculed Sanwo-Olu, at both the Lagos-Calabar highway and Lekki Free Port road commissioning. He skipped shaking his hands in one and ensured his absence in the other. You could hear the ghoulish cries of vultures waiting to feed off the flesh of the governor. At the Port road commissioning, Ap’ejalodo was fuming from all cylinders: “I am glad the Deputy Governor of Lagos is here. Take it that we will remove all those approvals given on the setbacks already given. No more planning approvals for those unplanned island being created illegally,” he said. Ngugi wa Thiong’o was indeed right. Ire is corrosive.

Ap’ejalodo, having been lifted up by his fish god friend to have an elephant firmly rested on his head, still wants to know what tiny crickets are doing in their small holes. He is enraged by the audacity of Sanwo-Olu’s Sun to intrude into his sacristy. Couldn’t the lanky fellow respect the majesty of the No 1 Citizen of Nigeria, its richest man and the most powerful in the land?

Again, I am certain that we are about to witness the denouement of this macabre drama of Ap’ejalodo trying to appropriate and approximate the power of God. Perhaps, the young man who stoned the Iroko tree some years back is ripe for celestial forces’ retribution at his attempt to wear the same trousers with God?

By Wole Olujobi

Never since the Lebanese conflagration has a modern world been confronted with the religious nationalism being promoted in Nigeria by desperate politicians who value ambition for self-glorification far above the ethos that safeguard peace and security for national unity and development.

In the last presidential election, Dr Peter Obi of the Labour Party and his cohorts of reckless political evangelists, in their desperation for power, played a dangerous religious card pitting moslems against Christians.

In churches rose troubling religious sentiments and malicious sermons at vigils being promoted curiously by the elites, who openly promoted religious discord because of political contest. It was a period that Nigerians saw the marriage of a female pastor being put asunder by her fellow clerics in cassock. Completely, Pastor (Senator) Oluremi Tinubu was disowned by her fellow pastors in the Vineyard of God. The clergy, in rebellious animosity, lost the colour and temper of their trade as they distanced themselves from Pastor Remi Tinubu over her husband’s presidential bid because Tinubu ran on Muslim-muslim ticket.

But reasonable and ordinary Nigerians rejected them at polls to vote for peace and growth, citing the most peaceful June 12, 1993 presidential poll in Nigeria featuring two moslems (the late MKO Abiola and Ambassador Babagana Kingibe) who won the polls on the ticket of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), but which the sphinx of the Nigerian politics would not allow. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Alhaji Kashim Shettima repeated the feat in the 2023 presidential election to the chagrin of the Nigeria’s political mafiosi.

Two years after that salvation political contest won by President Tinubu, one of the remnants of the totems of the old order adept at desperate pursuit of power, Babachir David Lawal, is afield as a one-man Christian militia promoting religious antics that can stoke the cauldron of war reminiscent of the Beruit theatre of war in a desperate enterprise purely motivated by selfish pursuit of power.

Recall that in the Christian neighbourhood of Achrafieh in eastern Beirut in Lebanon, one neighbourhood watch initiative formed to reassure residents worried about the crime rate led to the formation of a private militia named Soldiers of God. Soldiers of God is a far-right group made up primarily of young working-class men who see themselves as “guardian angels”, patrolling the streets at night to keep the community safe.

The rise of Soldiers of God had at the time raised fears that Achrafieh would join this trend, evoking parallels with the Lebanese civil war (1975–1990) when the state collapsed, as militants controlled the streets, and Beirut was ideologically divided into the Christian east and Muslim west.

In his reaction to President Tinubu’s presence at the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican, Lawal had railed at the President, saying that his presence in Rome reinforced the insult of Muslim-Muslim ticket on the Christian population in Nigeria. He also had harsh words for Tinubu’s supporters, accusing them of being “blind and deaf” to the alleged collapse of economy and insecurity in the country.

Like it is always the case with unconscionably desperate partisans, Lawal’s present position sharply contradicts his earlier stance when he was one of Tinubu’s doormen and lackeys. Lawal it was who as both the Napoleon and Squealer of the ‘Animal Farm’ parroted the need for the Tinubu presidency when Tinubu seemed to be facing the cold shoulders of those who should carry his banners.

Like a consummate salesman, Lawal, in jingles and bells tied to the waist, raced across Nigeria, selling Tinubu and his benevolence, explaining in details how Tinubu single-handely ensured President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at polls and so he must also be supported to clinch the presidency.

But for a man in the cusp of political survival, there is a sense in which a promoter of an ideal can also be the undertaker to topple the very purport of his vision. This is where survival instincts, no matter how base, rule the roost. Napoleon and his hatchet crony Squealer are my witnesses!

Where then is Lawal’s integrity in his enterprise as a frontliner in a cause to now play the spoiler among the conclave of vicious fowls he is rallying to make their heaps in the morning and get them scattered in the evening?

No doubt, Lawal’s desperate antic to hit the power loop again has its roots in power loss fuelled by an alleged inappropriate conduct as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation when grasshoppers reportedly grazed through the national security cash vault and deposited the hay in private feedlots.

For Lawal, the quickest way to political rehabilitation is to stoke religious sentiment at a time that even in the countries where Islam is practised in the most strict, raw fundamentalism, the leaders in those countries are recorded as forging alliances with the Vatican and Christians in general.

We read about the immediate past Pope Francis visiting mosques in Indonesia to meet moslem leaders to chart a course for peace. He was in the United Arabs Emirates on February 4, 2019 to forge friendship with the muslim world, including a tour of key locations in Abu Dhabi, both religious and political, marking the end of a two-day conference on the “Human Fraternity Meeting” to discuss the importance of tolerance.

Pope Francis also met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani of Iraq, visited Muslim leaders in the Gulf-kingdom of Bahrain, and on December 2, 2014, the late Pope in Turkey called on political and religious leaders across the Muslim world to condemn violence done in the name of Islam.


Even while alive, Jesus Christ’s best friends were sinners and tormentors of His Father’s Kingdom (Mary Magdalen, Baraba, Zacchaeus and others, and later, Cornelius the Centurion). But the likes of Lawal are now telling us that they are more Christians than Jesus, Peter, James, John and Pope, and so Christians should have nothing to do with Muslims!

It is ridiculous and a pity that these pseudo Christians have allowed their souls to become inane and so cannot see anything beyond the Tinubu phobia. For sure,Tinubu was not the only muslim at Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration. But then it was convenient for a supposedly educated Lawal to stoke fractious religious sentiment to fuel his political thought in order to grab power at the time Tinubu is already defeating the terror of the Boko Haram insurgency, which began in July 2009 when the militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria.


Between 2011 and 2023, the human costs in Boko Haram attacks recorded thousands of deaths in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger with Nigeria being the most affected.

In 2019 alone, the economic cost of terrorism in Nigeria covered 2.4 percent of the country’s GDP, as the nation had the highest terrorism threat level in Africa. Also, Nigeria’s political, economic, and social instabilities have led to violence and deaths through attacks on both civilian and military targets.

Curiously, the insecurity and starvation that Lawal is accusing Tinubu of not addressing were compounded by alleged misappropriation of security funds to fight Boko Haram whose criminal activities caused flooding ravaging agricultural production in the North. The money was allegedly diverted for personal use by Lawal’s company when he was Secretary to the Government of the Federation; the alleged infraction that led to his suspension by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 19, 2017 before he was officially relieved of all duties on October 30, 2017 after a Senate investigation discovered in its May 2017 report that funds for clearing weeds in the North-Eastern areas threatened by Boko Haram to prevent flooding had allegedly been diverted to a company allegedly set up by Lawal.

Like in Lebanon, Lawal is promoting the Sainthood of the Order of Armagedon with himself as the Pontiff of the Cathedral of Chaos. And just like the “soldiers of God” in Beruit that later turned the streets to the theatres of wars, Lawal’s gambling to seize the levers of power through Tinubu’s bashing and promotion of religious strife has the tramping of soldiers of the Belzebubs set for street conflagration.

Nigeria has seen enough of bloodbath on the streets instigated by desperate politicians armed with deadly religious missiles to wreak havoc on the peace-loving Nigerians.

President Tinubu has recorded high marks in degrading the capabilities of the terror groups in their acts of sabotage against Nigeria’s economy and her human capital.
Both the Christian and moslem worlds have seen the benefits of keeping the peace as an essential element of factor of production, including service economy, to make progress. Reckless and desperate politicians should spare a thought for millions of Nigerians who desire peace to lead and live a purposeful life. Those who contributed to the sorry state of Nigeria cannot assault our brains with dubious nationalism that seeks to protect personal interest. Nationalism inspired by emergency and unconscionable soldiering for God to climb to power is unedifying in both form and content.


*Igirabata Wole Olujobi, former Ekiti State Deputy Director of Media and Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Committee, writes from Ado-Ekiti