When Speeches Replace Statistics: The Illusion of Performance Under Tinubu

When Speeches Replace Statistics: The Illusion of Performance Under Tinubu

By Citizens Bolaji O. Akinyemi

Otunba Mark Adesanya of the TSSG-DIASPORA recently tried to dress President Tinubu’s two-year record in glowing robes, arguing that Tinubu has outperformed expectations and surpassed Obasanjo’s early records. He cited Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Prof. Charles Soludo, and even Daddy Freeze as witnesses to an economic miracle. But let us interrogate this narrative with facts, statistics, and empirical proofs — not sentiments.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala never said the Nigerian economy is performing. She said it has been stabilised. There is a huge difference between stability and growth. A stable economy is like a patient on oxygen; he is no longer fainting, but he is far from walking. A performing economy, on the other hand, must show signs of growth, capacity expansion, job creation, and sectoral vibrancy. Nigeria, under Tinubu, has none of these. The worst that could happen to our economy has happened: it slipped from Buhari’s fainting state into Tinubu’s coma.

Inflation and Poverty: The Reality of Households

As at July 2023 when Tinubu removed fuel subsidy, headline inflation stood at 24.08%. By July 2025, inflation had crossed 34%, while food inflation surged above 40% (NBS data). This means the purchasing power of Nigerians has collapsed by more than half in two years. Over 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor (NBS report, 2022), and the figure is rising because wages are stagnant while prices gallop. This is not performance — it is punishment.

Fuel Subsidy Removal: Where is the Money?

Government officials claimed that subsidy removal freed over ₦7 trillion annually. If that is true, Nigerians should ask: where is the money? Instead of transparent accounting, what we hear is that “governors are getting more allocations.” Of what value is giving money to governors without accountability? Subsidy scammers have been replaced by political scammers. Worse still, while we were promised that subsidy removal would finance education, health, and infrastructure, today we are still owing contractors for 2024 contracts in 2025. That is not performance; it is fiscal recklessness.

Debt Trap: Mortgaging the Future

Tinubu inherited ₦77 trillion in debt. Within two years, Nigeria’s debt stock has ballooned to over ₦120 trillion (DMO, mid-2025). Loans upon loans are being contracted, with little evidence of productivity gains. What is the logic of borrowing to repair airports at ₦712 billion, while hospitals are collapsing and lecturers are owed arrears? This is the masquerade economy — loans for prestige projects while citizens starve.

Exchange Rate and Foreign Reserves: The Masquerade of FX Reforms

The unification of exchange rates was hailed as reform, yet the naira has lost over 200% of its value in two years. From ₦460/$ in May 2023, the naira now trades above ₦1,600/$ in August 2025. Foreign reserves are depleted, capital inflows have dried up, and manufacturers are shutting down due to lack of access to dollars. Stability? No. This is economic asphyxiation.

The Tinted Windows Economy: Harassment as Revenue

When a government runs out of ideas, it taxes shadows. Look at the tinted windows saga: while the IGP extended enforcement deadlines, Wike was busy treating tinted glass as revenue generation. Citizens are harassed, extorted, and humiliated at checkpoints in the name of “compliance.” This is not policy; it is state-sanctioned extortion. When tax, revenue, and policing collapse into harassment, the state itself is confessing economic failure.

Education: A Nation Against Its Children

While states are struggling to ease the cost of education by making textbooks last for four years, the federal government is busy introducing car ownership expiry and tinted glass renewal. Misplaced priorities abound. Instead of investing subsidy savings in affordable education, our children are forced into strikes, dilapidated classrooms, and rising school fees. Can such a government claim performance?

Masquerade Economy: Hiding Behind Speeches

What we have is not a performing economy but a masquerade economy. Figures are shielded in secrecy, while speeches and media spin are used as performance indices. Speeches may win applause in banquets, but they do not pay school fees, feed families, or create jobs.

Tinubu’s apologists argue that critics are bitter because their candidates could not have achieved what Tinubu has done. But let us be honest: if performance is measured by hunger, if stability is defined by debt, and if progress is counted by harassment of citizens at tinted glass checkpoints, then perhaps Tinubu has truly outperformed expectations.

But Nigerians know the truth. The economy is still breathing, yes, but it is incapable of activities required to grow and support its sectors. Until productivity, transparency, and accountability return, Nigeria will remain in economic coma — no matter how loud the speeches.

Dr. Bolaji O. Akinyemi is an Apostle and Nation Builder. He’s also President Voice of His Word Ministries and Convener Apostolic Round Table. BoT Chairman, Project Victory Call Initiative, AKA PVC Naija. He is a strategic Communicator and the C.E.O, Masterbuilder Communications.

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