Tinubu’s Lagos Blueprint: A Nation Trapped in Poverty, Crime and Hopelessness.

By George Omagbemi Sylvester | saharaweeklyng.com

From beggarly elders to radicalized youths, Nigeria now bleeds under a system designed to enslave not empower.

Introduction: The Lagos Template Now Nationalized.

The tragedy unfolding in Nigeria today is not a coincidence; it is the product of a carefully designed system that has its roots in Lagos, under the political blueprint of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. What Lagos became under Tinubu’s political dominance is exactly what Nigeria is becoming under his presidency: a society where the elderly are condemned to perpetual penury and forced into humiliating dependence, while the youth are stripped of opportunity and dignity, reduced to survival through street crime, political thuggery and economic delinquency.

This is not leadership. This is systemic entrapment. It is the deliberate entrenchment of poverty as a political weapon. And it is Tinubu’s dream for Nigeria.

A System That Abandons the Elderly.
Nigeria’s senior citizens, after decades of service and sacrifice, should be living with dignity. Instead, the Lagos model that Tinubu pioneered perfected the art of abandoning retirees to their fate. Pensioners in Lagos once staged countless protests, sleeping on the streets, begging for arrears that never came. Even as recently as 2022, Lagos retirees cried out about unpaid pensions running into billions of naira. The situation is mirrored nationally today, with federal retirees owed months of arrears under Tinubu’s government.

Professor Claude Ake, the late renowned political economist, once wrote, “In Nigeria, poverty is not accidental; it is a political instrument.” Tinubu’s Lagos exemplified this. A system that keeps the elderly poor ensures they remain dependent on political “favors” rather than demanding accountability. Today, Nigeria’s aged are trapped in exactly that cycle – HOPELESS BEGGARS, PATHETIC PREY of a PREDATORY SYSTEM.

Youth Radicalization: From Potential to Political Weapons.
Nowhere is the collapse more visible than in the fate of Nigeria’s youth. Lagos was the laboratory for converting unemployed young men into political foot soldiers. The “AREA BOYS ” phenomenon did not emerge by chance; it was nurtured and weaponized. These boys became the machinery for electoral dominance, used to intimidate voters, suppress opposition and guarantee Tinubu’s grip on Lagos politics.

Today, Nigeria is experiencing the same blueprint, just at a national scale. Youth unemployment officially stands at over 53% (NBS, 2024), the highest in West Africa. When opportunities vanish, desperation thrives. Many of these youths now survive on political crime gigs; ballot snatching, thuggery, fake protests and cyber fraud.

As Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka once warned, “When you rob the youth of hope, you create an army of the damned.” Nigeria’s streets are filling with precisely that army, radicalized not by ideology but by systemic hopelessness.

The Lagos “Success Story” – A Manufactured Myth.
Supporters of Tinubu like to trumpet Lagos as his success story, but the facts tell a different tale. While Lagos generates Nigeria’s highest internal revenue, its wealth is scandalously concentrated in the hands of a few. Slums expand as fast as luxury estates rise. Public schools are overcrowded and underfunded. Health facilities are collapsing. The wealth of Lagos is captured by a political cartel, while the masses remain in urban squalor.

The World Bank (2022) noted that Lagos alone accounts for 10% of Nigeria’s extreme poor, despite being its richest state. This paradox is no accident; it is the very essence of Tinubu’s model: capture revenue, privatize wealth, and weaponize poverty.

Nationalization of the Lagos Formula.
What Lagosians endured is now what Nigerians nationwide are enduring. Tinubu’s presidency has elevated the Lagos formula into national policy. Fuel subsidy removal was announced without safety nets, throwing millions into poverty overnight. Inflation now gallops above 34% (NBS, August 2025), with food inflation hitting 41%. The naira has collapsed beyond recognition, pushing families into starvation.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports confirm that over 71 million Nigerians now live in extreme poverty; a figure that has worsened under Tinubu’s short rule. Rather than addressing this, his administration doubles down on BORROWING, CORRUPTION and PROPAGANDA.

Professor Pat Utomi, a respected economist, warned: “Nigeria is being run as a fiefdom of political cartels rather than as a nation for its citizens. We are witnessing the privatization of the commonwealth.” That is precisely what Tinubu perfected in Lagos and what he now executes on a larger scale.

Crime as Economy, Poverty as Policy.
When citizens are denied legitimate livelihoods, illegitimate ones become inevitable. Street crime in Lagos during Tinubu’s reign was legendary, from the reign of “AREA BOYS” to the rise of violent gangs. Rather than dismantle this structure, Tinubu absorbed it into the political machine. Crime was not fought; it was managed, redirected and deployed.

Nigeria today is reaping the harvest of that experiment. Armed robbery, kidnapping, cyber-crime and political thuggery are thriving industries. The government’s silence and complicity are deafening. According to the Global Organized Crime Index (2023), Nigeria ranks among the top ten countries in the world for organized crime. This is no coincidence; it is the natural outcome of institutionalizing poverty and weaponizing youths.

The Elderly as Collateral Damage.
What is even more disturbing is how Nigeria’s senior citizens are treated. While political elites live in obscene luxury, pensioners are owed arrears, denied healthcare and left to die in penury. In Lagos, elderly retirees were often seen collapsing at rallies or protests demanding their dues. This inhumanity is now nationwide.

The United Nations (2024) report on aging in Africa noted that Nigeria has one of the highest elderly poverty rates globally. Rather than designing welfare systems, Tinubu’s government has continued the Lagos culture of abandonment. The message is clear: Nigeria eats its old and enslaves its young.

Global Comparisons: Leadership or Entrapment?

Around the world, true leaders invest in the future. Rwanda, for instance, transformed itself from genocide ruins to one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies by investing in healthcare, education, and digital innovation. Singapore rose from a swamp to a first-world nation through visionary leadership and meritocracy.

Nigeria, under Tinubu, is heading in the opposite direction. Poverty is deepening, institutions are collapsing and the social fabric is tearing. This is not leadership, it is political parasitism.

As Chinua Achebe once observed, “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.” That failure has now reached its most devastating expression under Tinubu’s presidency.

Final Verdict: Breaking Free from the Blueprint.
Nigeria must confront an uncomfortable truth: Tinubu’s Lagos blueprint is not a path to development but a trap of underdevelopment. It is a system designed to keep the elderly in beggarly penury and the youth in criminal radicalization, while a political cartel enriches itself.

The question is whether Nigerians will continue to tolerate this or rise to dismantle it. The stakes are existential. A nation that abandons its old and enslaves its young is a nation without a future.

History will not forgive silence. As the late Nelson Mandela warned, “Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.”

Tinubu’s Nigeria is man-made poverty; DELIBERATE, ENTRENCHED and SYSTEMIC. But it can and must, be dismantled. The time is now.