By Segun Dipe
My fellow Yoruba,
Let us talk as one family. No family talks to itself through pretence.
Our son, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, did not inherit a good house. He inherited a house that was already collapsing. On May 29, 2023, the treasury was empty because we spent almost all we earned paying fuel subsidy. We were subsidising insolvency. Power was in darkness because one central government held electricity for over 200 million people. Universities were on strike. Hospitals were charging the poor to die.
Today, three years and five months after, the pain has not vanished, but the foundation is stronger. This is not propaganda. It is measurable.
*1. He opened the door of school for the poor.*
For over 30 years, we debated student loans and never disbursed one. Tinubu created the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and started paying. Today, the son of a farmer and the daughter of a trader can enter university without begging a political godfather. Around NELFUND, he built a skills agenda – technical and vocational education, digital skills, STEM, and teacher retraining. His message is clear: Nigeria must move from paper certificates to productive skills that feed a family.
*2. He broke a 100-year electricity monopoly.*
The Electricity Act of 2023 is the restructuring we have demanded since 1960. For the first time, states can generate, transmit and distribute their own power. Ekiti can now produce its own light. Lagos can produce its own. That is true federalism, without noise or bloodshed. To cushion subsidy removal, he launched the Presidential CNG Initiative – cheaper gas for our cars, new refuelling stations and conversion centres nationwide. He also launched the Presidential Metering Initiative to end the fraud of estimated billing, and promoted solar and off-grid power for villages the national grid abandoned long ago.
*3. He is connecting Nigeria with roads we thought impossible.*
Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is under construction. Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway, 1,068 kilometres, is under construction. Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano, Enugu-Onitsha, East-West Road, Abuja-Lokoja, Oyo-Ogbomoso, and the historic Bodo-Bonny Road that will finally link Bonny Island to the mainland for the first time in history. These are not vanity projects. Road is the first anti-poverty programme. Where road opens, market opens.
*4. He took healthcare to the poorest first.*
This government introduced free Caesarean sections for mothers who could not afford hospital bills – a policy that has saved women who would have died simply because they were poor. Free dialysis in selected federal hospitals, revitalisation of over 1,000 primary health centres, expanded health insurance, emergency ambulance services, and upgraded federal hospitals. Health is now moving from big city hospitals to the doorstep.
*5. He went back to the farm, not the market.*
Instead of sharing imported rice, he invested in mechanisation. Tractors, improved seedlings, fertiliser support, irrigation and agricultural financing. Produce more, process locally, feed ourselves. That is how jobs are created.
*6. He gave our people access to credit and dignity.*
Nigeria was a cash-and-carry economy. No cash, no life. Tinubu established the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation so ordinary Nigerians can acquire productive assets and pay little by little. He supported SMEs, digital entrepreneurship, and local manufacturing. That is how a real middle class is built.
*7. He fixed the leaking purse of government.*
In June 2025, he signed four major tax reform laws – the most ambitious tax reform since 1999. Small companies are now exempted. Tax administration is harmonised. Revenue collection is improved. The stealing of our solid minerals is being stopped, and local processing is now being enforced. In oil and gas, he insisted on refining at home, supported NLNG Train, fought crude oil theft, and pushed domestic gas utilisation.
He strengthened security operations, improved collaboration among security agencies, supported intelligence-led operations, and sustained efforts to rescue kidnapped citizens. He launched the Renewed Hope Housing Programme for affordable homes.
My people, I am not saying everything is finished. Some projects are still in progress. Some policies are still struggling. But for the first time in a long time, someone chose to repair the foundation rather than paint the wall to deceive us.
This is our son. This is our moment. We have never had this opportunity so close. Other regions are watching what we will do.
If we abandon our own when he is laying the bricks, who will lay for us tomorrow?
Let us stand with him. Let us defend these reforms. Let us deliver the votes again in January 2027 and show that the Yoruba race knows how to protect its own and protect Nigeria.
Tinubu has taken the difficult strides. The strides that matter most. Let history record that when it mattered, the Yoruba did not falter.
_Segun Dipe is the Publicity Secretary, All Progressives Congress (APC), Ekiti State Chapter. He writes from Ado-Ekiti._
