#ENDBADGOVERNANCE MOVEMENT, LAGOS STATE, PRESS STATEMENT
A REVIEW OF TWO YEARS OF PRESIDENT TINUBU’S GOVERNMENT OF HUNGER, HARDSHIP AND PAIN AND THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE NIGERIAN MASSES
This press conference has been convened to commemorate the two years anniversary of the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Today 29 May, 2025 makes it two years since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came into power as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Today also makes it two years since his infamous declaration “subsidy is gone” during his inauguration ceremony at the Eagle Square in Abuja on 29 May, 2023.
Between that time and now, what is the quality of life of the average Nigerian person? How has the regime of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu fared vis-a-vis the socio-economic welfare of the Nigerian people as well as in view of the promises made by the President during and after the 2023 general elections? These and many more are the questions we seek answers to as we collectively reflect and review the scorecard of this regime over the past two years.
TWO YEARS OF HUNGER, HARDSHIP AND PAIN
Without equivocation, we have to say that the past two years of President Tinubu’s government has been nothing short of a disaster for the mass of Nigerian people. The anti-poor and neo-liberal reforms of the regime have led to destruction of livelihoods and the economy on a scale previously unimagined.
For example, the pump price of petrol which Tinubu met at N197 per litre when he came to power on May 29, 2023 now hovers around N800 to N900 per litre – a marginal drop from its peak of around N1,100 per litre last year. The naira has also sharply depreciated from N463/$1 in early May 2023 to nearly N1600/$1 as at April 2025. Within the same period, headline inflation rate rose from 23% in April 2023 to 35% in December 2024 – the highest in the last three decades!
On the same score, food prices are more than 80% higher than when the election was held, transport fares for interstate travel rose by 403.5%, airfares rose by 280.7% on the average, while water transport fares also rose by 148.8 percent rise over the past two years. As a report by Business Day Newspaper shows, three out of ten workers allocate over 20% of their salary to transport costs while over 50% of Nigerians spend almost all of their income on food alone. Indeed, some families now go without food as they cannot afford to have three square meals in 24 hours.
ECONOMIC DESTRUCTION
Another result of Tinubu’s two-year presidency is the asphyxiation of the national economy due to the adverse effect of the removal of oil subsidy and naira devaluation. The greatest impact can be felt in manufacturing sector whose contribution to the GDP decreased from 8.42% in the third quarter of 2023 to 8.21% in the same period last year. The sector’s growth rate has also slowed on the back of weakened consumer demand, escalating production costs, and declining purchasing power.
As we speak, several multinational firms have had to relocate out of the country even as others have closed shop. Indeed, according to a report by the Manufacturer Association of Nigeria (MAN), an 87.5% surge of unsold inventory running into N2.14 trillion was recorded for the year 2024 compared to 2023.
Also, more than half of Nigeria’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been wiped off over the past two years that Tinubu came to power. Despite the picture of growth that its naira-denominated variant portrays, the country’s GDP in dollar terms has actually declined from $363.82 billion in 2023 to $188.27 billion in 2025. Likewise, from a GDP per capital of $2, 200 in 2022, Nigeria’s GDP per capita declined to $835 in 2025 highlighting how much toll Tinubu’s reforms have taken on the masses.
DICTATORSHIP
Under Tinubu, we have to say that Nigerians are living more or less like enslaved citizens. All the constitutionally-guaranteed rights and freedoms that in the past inspired struggles against military rule and for democracy have now been completely taken away by the Tinubu administration. The civic space has shrunken to the point that Nigerians can no longer breath.
The rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association are routinely under attack. Several activists, bloggers and journalists are being routinely harassed, attacked, arrested and prosecuted for simply exercising freedom of speech. Also protest has now been transformed into a treasonable offence. This is exemplified by the ongoing trial of Adaramoye Michael Lenin, Daniel Akande and other activists arrested in connection with the #EndBadGovernance protest last year. It is also exemplified by the series of ‘jankara’ court orders and judgements that states and federal governments, notably the Lagos State and Ogun state governments, have secured through the backdoor to restrict protests to a few selected parks in order to prevent a revolt from developing against their anti-poor policies.
All the while, President Tinubu is ruling like an overlord having succeeded in compromising the legislature and judiciary thereby turning his administration into nothing but a civilian dictatorship. The unconstitutional declaration of emergency rule in Rivers State stands as another clear indication of President Tinubu’s brazen contempt for the constitution in his desire to turn Nigeria into a Banana Republic.
INCREASED INEQUALITY
One of the unmistakable results of Tinubu’s presidency is increased inequality. On the one hand, wages have stayed abysmally low relative to the rate of inflation despite recent review in the national minimum wage. Indeed, when the dollar value is considered, the current N70, 000 minimum wage negotiated by trade unions last year has the same purchasing power as Nigeria’s wage of N125 four decades ago!
However, on the other hand, a few billionaires have seen their wealth increase exponentially within the past two years showing the pro-rich character of Tinubu’s reforms. According to Forbes, billionaire Aliko Dangote has seen his wealth nearly double from $13.4 billion last year to $23.9 billion in January 2025, which ranks the Nigerian entrepreneur as the wealthiest person in Africa and 86th in the world. Three other billionaires, Mike Adenuga, Abdulsamad Rabiu, and Femi Otedola, have seen their wealth increased in the same manner. Their combined wealth, derived from monopoly power and cronyism, is now valued at $23.7 billion. This is an amount so vast that, according to Oxfam, it could easily cover the whole of Lagos city in 500-naira notes. In fact, Aliko Dangote alone could spend N1 million daily for 42 years without depleting his fortune! Meanwhile, over 133 million Nigerians, around 70% of the population, are struggling with hunger while thousands are dying because they cannot afford hospital bills.
Aside from all these, Nigeria has become even more unsafe under President Tinubu than ever before due to the unresolved and deteriorating crisis of insecurity across the length and breadth of the country. Kidnapping, banditry and violence of all kinds have become the order of the day. According to Amnesty International, nothing less than 10, 217 people have been killed in the two years since Tinubu came into power. Of this, 6, 896 were killed in Benue and 2, 630 in Plateau states. Likewise, over 672 villages have been sacked by bandits under this administration while the humanitarian crisis resulting from this violence are being ignored by the government. This is not to mention the tens of thousands who have perished in the North East due to the Boko Haram and ISWAP insurgency and the over two million displaced.
WE CAN NO LONGER CONTINUE LIKE THIS – FOR MASS ACTION ON JUNE 12
No doubt, all the above are the painful consequences of the IMF/World Bank neoliberal reforms, otherwise known as the Renewed Hope Agenda, that President Tinubu chose to implement as soon as he took power. In implementing these policies, Tinubu and the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) had promised that they would lead to prosperity for Nigeria. Two years after, none of the promises has materialized. Instead, the neo-liberal reforms have resulted in greater inequality, hunger and deepening poverty. From renewed hope, the Nigerian people have now been pushed into a state of renewed hopelessness and mass misery.
However, we have to say that these brutal results are not in any way surprising. Since the 1980s, the Nigerian people have become well aware that any IMF/World Bank reform often ends up in the destruction of national economies and impoverishment of the people. For instance, the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the late 80s and 90s also had similar consequences. That President Tinubu went ahead to implement a neo-liberal agenda that has failed before in this country aside numerous examples of failure across the neo-colonial world including Latin America is the clearest indication yet that he does not mean well for this country.
Meanwhile, it is also important to say that at no time did the Nigerian people ever agreed with President Tinubu on this ruinous IMF/World Bank agenda. Recall that right from May 29, 2023 when these neo-liberal reforms were pronounced, the Nigerian people resoundingly rejected them. So, these economic reforms were imposed by President Tinubu on a helpless nation. In fact, the imposition of the policy of oil subsidy removal and petrol price hike was President Tinubu’s first act of dictatorship. In August last year, tens of thousands of Nigerian people trooped out to the street nationwide for 10 days to also reject these policies.
Today, on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of the Tinubu regime, we owe it to ourselves and the Nigerian people to continue to reject these policies because they have failed. Indeed, we hereby reaffirm the rejection of these criminal IMF/World Bank anti-people policies which are impoverishing our people while destroying the national economy and pledge to continue the resistance against it. To this extent, we declare Thursday 12 June 2025 being “Democracy Day” as a day of protest for the Nigerian people to again come out to express their rejection and dissatisfaction with the condition of hunger and hardship which is the only achievement of the Tinubu regime since it came into power two years ago. In Lagos State, the protest march that will take off on that day by 7:30 am at Ikeja Under Bridge.
Please note that the June 12 action is the continuation of our long-term resistance against the criminal IMF/World Bank policies of this administration. Therefore, more actions should be expected even after. We shall also intensify discussions with progressive groups and organisations in order to extend the resistance nationwide.
CARDINAL DEMANDS:
(1) Reverse hike in fuel prices and electricity tariff back to pre-May 29, 2023 rates.
(2) End hunger by reducing food prices and public investment in Agriculture. Adequate security for farmers.
(3) Reverse fuel subsidy removal, electricity privatization and end all IMF/World Bank Policies.
(4) A real living wage now.
(5) We need jobs. Pay unemployment benefit to the unemployed.
(6) End corruption. Place all political office holders on the wage of a skilled worker.
(7) Scrap security vote and constituency allowances.
(8) The poor have a right to education. Reverse all high fees in public schools across the country.
(9) Replace students’ loan with study grants and increase budgetary allocation to public education
(10) End kidnapping and insecurity now. Prosecute culprits and their sponsors.
(11) Withdraw trumped up charges against Adaramoye Michael Lenin, Mosiu Sodiq, Daniel Akande and all protesters on trial and other victims of state repression.
(12) Reverse the unconstitutional state of emergency in Rivers State.
(13) End all attacks on democratic rights.
(14) End Police Extortion and Brutality now
(15) Genuine electoral reform now.
Hassan Taiwo Soweto
Oloye Adegboyega-Adeniji
Organising Committee, #EndBadGovernance Movement, Lagos State. 0703 369 7259.
Being the text of a press conference addressed by the #EndBadGovernance movement, Lagos State and civil society organizations on Thursday 29 May, 2025 at the International Press Centre (IPC), Ogba, Lagos.