By Okoi Obono-Obla
Nigeria at 66: Have Nigerian leaders met the expectations of citizens since independence? My answer is no. Nigerian leadership since independence has largely been uninspiring, lackluster, moderate and laid-back. It has failed to deliver on the promise that accompanied independence – to build a united, strong and prosperous nation capable of providing opportunity and dignity for all.
I listened carefully to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Independence Day Address titled “From Reform to Prosperity” and I find it honest and significant. The President rightly acknowledged that our 66-year journey has been too hard for too many, marked by war, military rule, economic crises and political upheaval. His most powerful metaphor was that of Nigeria as a cancer patient. For decades, according to him, leaders chose morphine – sustaining wasteful and inefficient arrangements – instead of excising the cancer. When his administration assumed office in 2023, it chose treatment. That framing is consistent with my own assessment of him as the best performing Nigerian leader in recent history, not because he is perfect, but because of his courage and audacity.
What makes President Tinubu stand out is that on his inaugural day, he took three decisions that previous leaders avoided because of their political cost. First, he removed the wasteful and corruption-ridden petroleum subsidy that had drained the economy for almost 50 years. Second, he floated the national currency, the Naira, which had become notorious for racketeering, official corruption and had hamstrung the economy, making it unattractive for both domestic and foreign investment. Third, he initiated a comprehensive tax reform agenda that overhauled the country’s revenue generation system, which had been mired in outdated models for nearly 80 years, to save the country from financial hemorrhage. He did all this knowing it would inflict immediate pain on the same people whose votes he will rely on for a second term. That is courage. The Independence Day speech now claims the results are emerging: over 4% growth in 2026, reduction in oil theft, substantial fall in inflation from its peak, rebuilt foreign reserves, a stabilized foreign exchange market, and over $6 billion in non-oil exports in 2025. The President says the emergency treatment is over and we have entered the age of prosperity focused on bringing down the cost of living, mechanized agriculture, gas-to-power industrialization, jobs for our young population, and social protection through the National Social Register, NELFUND and CREDICORP.
In contrast, I rate General Ibrahim Babangida as the lowest. He had nine uninterrupted years as a military leader with enormous goodwill and oil resources to fundamentally change the country, but he was overwhelmed by his own character flaws and selfishness. My reason is singular: he annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which was the first election truly forged by a national consensus in a country that is usually fractious. That annulment set the country backward for many years and destroyed the trust that his own reforms had attempted to build. Where Babangida had time and squandered it, President Tinubu has used a short time to take the hard decisions.
In conclusion, President Tinubu’s speech is a logical continuation of his regime’s defining character. The age of reform, painful as it has been, was necessary. The task now, as he rightly said, is to ensure that reform translates into shared and widespread prosperity where farmers produce more cheaply, factories have reliable power, food and transportation are affordable, and hard-working families can look to the future with confidence. If he delivers on that second phase, history will indeed vindicate his claim that Nigeria has corrected its course and passed through its own Red Sea.
