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The Catholic Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, Godfrey Onah, made a profound statement recently. I do not know where he gave the message, but in a viral video I saw, I heard him say that a nation is doomed when its leaders are no longer afraid of the reaction of the people. According to him, the religious leaders of Israel at that time, the Pharisees and chief priests, wanted to arrest Jesus, but they were afraid of the people. It was only when they were able to manipulate the people that they eventually arrested Jesus and had him killed. “Anytime a government is no longer afraid of its citizens, that nation is doomed,” he stressed.
This is what is happening in Nigeria today. The government is no longer afraid of anybody. It takes any decision that comes to its fancy and citizens look on with frustration. They have been cowed into submission.
Mostly those feeding fat from the government hail such dangerous and harsh decisions as bold steps. President Bola Tinubu took one of such ‘bold steps’ on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. In a nationwide broadcast, the President declared a state of emergency in Rivers State. He not only suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Mrs Ngozi Odu, for an initial period of six months, he also suspended all the members of the state House of Assembly. He appointed Vice-Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd) as Sole Administrator to administer the affairs of the state. In taking this action, the President relied on Section 305 of the 1999 constitution (as amended).
As many legal and discerning observers have noted, Tinubu was wrong to have suspended a democratically elected governor of a state, his deputy and members of the state House of Assembly. The Nigerian Bar Association, for instance, noted that the President lacked the constitutional power to remove a governor under emergency rule. According to the association, it is a fundamental breach of Nigeria’s federal structure. Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution stipulates how a governor and the deputy governor could be removed from office.
Besides, the crisis in Rivers state was largely precipitated by the political tussle between Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike. It has not reached the extent of declaring a state of emergency. Tinubu’s action exposed his total bias against Fubara. For him, he probably has his eyes on the 2027 election. He would wish that his loyalist, Wike, retains control of the state because that will be of great benefit to him in 2027 just like it benefitted him in the 2023 elections.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum has threatened to take legal action against the Federal Government. But I suspect that this will be an exercise in futility knowing what our courts have become in recent times.
What we have in our hands is total state capture. The judiciary, the National Assembly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security agencies have all been captured. Just look at the way the National Assembly members approved the emergency rule in Rivers. Rather than debate and vote on it, they resorted to voice vote. How do we now determine if two-third of the lawmakers voted on this issue as required by the constitution? This is rather unfortunate.
This brings us to Tinubu’s first major bold step – “subsidy is gone.” Yes, his decision to remove fuel subsidy was bold but the step was wrong. So, it was a wrong bold step. How could the President casually announce the removal of fuel subsidy in his inaugural speech without first studying the situation and mapping out measures to ameliorate the hardship it was bound to cause? That singular announcement put us where we are today.
The coming of Dangote Refinery may have broken the monopoly of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). But it has only led to a little reduction in the price of fuel. Before Tinubu assumed office on May 29, 2023, the price was about N185 a litre. Now, it’s over N800 a litre, down from over N1,000 it jumped to last year. Even with the little drop in the price, the cost of transportation has not come down.
Tinubu’s acolytes have also been celebrating his second bold step – the floating of the foreign exchange market. As of January 2025, the exchange rate was over N1,600 to a dollar. It dropped a little to about N1,500 to a dollar and we started celebrating; applauding Tinubu for stabilizing the naira. It has started climbing up again. Early 2023, shortly before Tinubu came on board, it was less than N500 to a dollar.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) did not mince words when it told President Tinubu recently that his economic reforms were pushing millions of Nigerians into poverty. According to the Archbishop of Owerri and President of the CBCN, Lucious Iwejuru Ugorji, Nigerians have continued to endure increasing hardship, including high cost of petroleum products, transportation and essential goods, as a result of the harsh socio-economic situation.
Ugorji, who spoke at the opening session of the 2025 First Plenary Meeting of the conference held in Abuja penultimate week, added that the economic reforms had significantly triggered sky-rocketing inflation and drastically reduced the purchasing power of Nigerians. To cap it all, kidnapping for ransom and mindless killing of innocent people are on the rise. All these, the bishops lamented, were having heavy tolls on the mental health of many parents as they overstretched themselves to make ends meet.
The bishops didn’t tell us anything new. But the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, dismissed their concerns as an alarming prognosis. According to him, Nigeria is making significant progress in every sphere and that the country is far better now than it was before Tinubu took over as President. To Onanuga, Nigeria is now more secure than in 2023, as over 8,000 criminals have been eliminated and over 10,000 Nigerians rescued from their captors. He said improved security had enabled farmers to return to their farms, resulting in increased food production and drop in prices of essential commodities.
This is not correct. In the 2025 Global Terrorism Index (GTI), Nigeria was ranked sixth most terrorism-affected country in the world. This is worse than the country’s eighth position in 2023 and 2024. In 2022, Nigeria recorded 392 terrorism-related deaths. In 2023, the fatalities increased to 533 and further increased to 565 in 2024.
Furthermore, a new terrorist group known as Lakurawa emerged in the North-West last year. They have joined Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, kidnappers, Fulani herdsmen to kill and maim Nigerians. The National Bureau of Statistics, in its 2024 Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey, reported that over 2.2 million kidnap incidents took place in Nigeria between May 2023 and April 2024. Over N2.2 trillion was paid to kidnappers as ransom. So, where did Onanuga get his statistics of improved security theory from?
President Tinubu expanded on Onanuga’s half-truth when he met with Catholic bishops penultimate Friday. He told the bishops that the ongoing reforms were necessary to build a stronger nation. “We were spending the investment of the future of our children yet unborn; We were spending their rights, and poverty has no religious basis,” Tinubu said.
The presidency must be living in a fantasy world. Are the powers that be not aware that the harsh economic environment in the country has led to the demise or relocation of a number of companies. Over 10 of them left Nigeria in 2023 alone. They include the British pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK); Sanofi-Aventis Nigeria Ltd; Procter & Gamble Nigeria; Unilever Nigeria Plc; and Bolt Food.
Most of those that are still operating such as Nigerian Breweries, MTN, Nestle Nigeria, among others, have been doing so at a huge loss. Nestle Nigeria posted a net loss of N164.6 billion for the 2024 financial year, a 107 per cent decline from the N79.5 billion loss recorded in 2023. MTN Nigeria announced a N550.33 billion loss before tax in 2024. This was attributed to N925.36 billion net foreign exchange losses.
Civil servants are not left out. The majority of them cannot meet up with payment of mounting bills. After much agitation by the organized labour, the government increased the minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000 a month in July 2024. Many state governments are yet to pay this new wage. Government also increased the allowance of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members from N33,000 to N77,000. Up until today, that increase has not been implemented, despite assurances by the NYSC authorities.
The power wielders are only quick to implement what will lubricate their luxurious lifestyle. The President cruises around the world in a new presidential jet that cost Nigeria fortunes. The fleet of exotic vehicles in his convoy is second to none. This administration also spent N21 billion to build the residence of the Vice-President.
A recent report by Premium Times indicates that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abass, move about in a convoy of 11 exotic vehicles. Their deputies reportedly move about in nine-vehicle convoy. The Speaker is said to have the same number of vehicles in his convoy. These convoy vehicles reportedly cost over N7 billion. This is outside a total of about N57.6bn worth of new sport utility vehicles which members of the National Assembly got soon after they were inaugurated in 2023.
Meanwhile, the majority of the citizens have become walking corpses. It is such that the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has projected that about 31.1 million Nigerians would face acute food insecurity, especially during the lean season which is between June and August 2025. It is estimated that about 40 per cent of Nigerian children under five suffer from stunted growth.
If all these are dividends of the so-called bold steps, then the President may have to engage a reverse gear. Government is there for the security and welfare of the people. But today, more Nigerians sink deeper into the pit of poverty, hunger, unemployment, insecurity and death. Any policy that makes citizens gnash their teeth needs to be revisited.
Bishop Onah is right. Tinubu has completely captured Nigeria. But what will it profit him if, at the end of the day, his bold steps lead to the demise of millions of Nigerians and the truncation of this democracy?
Re: Native doctors, other spiritual entrepreneurs and gullible Nigerians
Casy, just like you rightly said, the gullibility of most people is responsible for their belief in money ritual. I have never believed in it and have never tried it, but the truth is that no spiritual power can add one kobo to anybody’s fortunes let alone making one rich. It doesn’t exist. If it exists, those so-called spiritualists would be richer than Dangote. In fact, they would be reluctant to teach anybody how to make those millions and billions. Why would a native doctor charge his clientele a paltry #100k most times to give them spiritual power to make millions and billions? Does it mean that he doesn’t love billions of money or good life?
-Ifeanyi Maduako, Owerri, 0806 156 2735
•Also published in the Daily Sun of Monday, March 24, 2025
