No Light, No Food, No Safety: The Death of the Nigerian Dream Under Tinubu & APC Rule

By George Omagbemi Sylvester

A Nation in Crisis: The Plight of Ordinary Nigerians.

Nigeria, once hailed as the “Giant of Africa,” now teeters on the brink of collapse. Under the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the nation’s foundational structures; education, healthcare, infrastructure and security are deteriorating, leaving millions in despair.​

1. Education and Healthcare: Neglected Pillars

The educational system is in disarray, persistent crises have severely damaged school infrastructure, increased teacher shortages, and displaced 2 million children in the BAY states (Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe). Healthcare services are equally dire; in 2025, 31% of health facilities are out of operation and ongoing conflict further strains resources. These deficiencies have led to a brain-drain with professionals seeking better opportunities abroad, further exacerbating the situation.​

2. Infrastructure Decay: Roads and Electricity

The country’s infrastructure is crumbling. Many roads are impassable, hindering transportation and commerce. Electricity supply is erratic at best; despite promises of 24-hour power supply, many regions experience prolonged outages. The shift to solar panels in Aso Rock, following allegations of embezzlement in the power sector, underscores the government’s failure to provide reliable electricity to its citizens.​

3. Security: A Nation Under Siege

Insecurity pervades Nigeria. From the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast to banditry in the northwest and separatist agitations in the southeast, citizens live in constant fear. Farmers are unable to cultivate their lands due to threats from armed groups, leading to food shortages and increased prices. The government’s response has been inadequate with security forces often overwhelmed or accused of complicity.​

4. Internally Displaced Persons: A Growing Humanitarian Crisis
The ongoing conflicts have displaced millions, forcing them into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps with limited access to basic necessities. These camps are overcrowded and under-resourced, leading to deplorable living conditions. In Borno State alone, there are over 874,000 IDPs across 17 Local Government Areas . The government’s efforts to resettle displaced persons have been met with skepticism, as many areas remain unsafe.​

5. Political Manipulation: Power Over People

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been accused of prioritizing political dominance over national welfare. Reports suggest that coercion and inducements are used to compel opposition figures to defect to the APC, undermining democratic principles. This focus on political consolidation detracts from addressing the pressing issues facing the nation. For instance, the APC National Secretary dismissed claims that the ruling party is steering Nigeria towards a one-party system.​

Voices of Conscience: Echoes from the Nation

Prominent Nigerians have voiced their concerns over the nation’s trajectory:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Author: “We cannot afford to be indifferent to the suffering of our fellow citizens.”​

Femi Falana, Human Rights Lawyer: “The government’s primary responsibility is the security and welfare of the people. Anything less is a betrayal.”​

A Call to Action: Reclaiming Nigeria’s Future
The challenges are immense, but not insurmountable. To chart a new course:

Civic Engagement: Citizens must hold leaders accountable through active participation in governance, demanding transparency and justice.​

Institutional Reform: Strengthening institutions to function independently and effectively is crucial for sustainable development.​

Security Overhaul: A comprehensive strategy to address insecurity, including community policing and intelligence-driven operations is essential.​

Economic Diversification: Reducing dependence on oil by investing in agriculture, technology and manufacturing can create jobs and stabilize the economy.​

Education and Healthcare Investment: Allocating resources to revitalize these sectors will empower citizens and foster national growth.​

The Path Forward
Nigeria’s current state is a reflection of systemic failures and misplaced priorities. However, with collective resolve and decisive action the nation can overcome these challenges. It is imperative for both leaders and citizens to commit to building a Nigeria that upholds the dignity, security and prosperity of all its people.​

Note: This write-up is based on current events and reports up to April 2025.

Sylvester is a political analyst, he writes from South Africa

Make Adequate Provisions For The Aged, Ajadi Admonishes Govts

A South West Chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, (NNPP), Ambassador Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo, has called on the federal and other level of governments to make adequate provisions for old people as it is obtained in developed countries.
Oguntoyinbo said it is high time such provision was enshrined in the constitution because everybody prays to get old and that when one is old, he can no longer takes care of him or herself.
He made this admonition, while speaking on the sideline of the final funeral ceremony of the late Mrs Oyinade Teluwo in Lagos on Friday.
Late Oyinade Teluwo is the mother of the NNPP Ogun Central Senatorial Candidate in the 2023 general election, Mr Kehinde Teluwo.

According to Ajadi, “We need to give little words of advice to our government especially Mr President. He has travelled to many advanced countries. We have also by the Grace of God being to many countries where we see how they are making adequate provisions for their elderly people.

“We need to copy that, government needs to provide for the aged people. In a place like the United States of America and the United Kingdom, governments take care of the needs of the elderly.
“Even if you are young, you are working, and suddenly you lose your jobs, either through termination of appointments or inability of your working place to continue operations, there is a system that will signal to the government that this person is not working again.
“The government gives priority and take care of such person that don’t have job any longer until he secures another employment.

“For the retirees, they know that when they retired, there is a provision for them to live on.

“But in Nigeria, even those who worked as civil servants, their entitlements are delayed and pensions are not paying as at when due except few states.
“This must change. We all pray to live old and therefore our government must do something for the aged.”
Speaking on the life of the late Mrs Teluwo, Ajadi said, “Mama lived a good life. She was kind and generous. She had left a good legacy for others to copy. She was a good Christian who served the Lord till her last minute on earth”.
Also speaking, the son of the deceased and NNPP Senatorial Candidate
for Ogun Central in the last general election, Mr Kehinde Teluwo urged the government to improve the living and health conditions of Nigerians so that they can live long.
According to him, “My mother died at the age of 74. To we the children and the family, we wished she had stayed more because of her good deeds. But how many people live up to Seventy in Nigeria?
“The life expectancy is below 60. This is due to the toxic environment, the food we eat and inadequate of affordable health facilities. Government should do something in this regard.”
Speaking on her mother, the NNPP Chieftain said, “She was everything to me. She taught me to be close to God and that through Him, I can achieve anything I desire. She was a super woman, a role model in all the communities she served.”

Also speaking about Mrs Oyinade Teluwo, the daughter -In -law, Mrs Hope Teluwo said that she was a detribalised person.
“I am an Ibo woman and when his son introduced me to her as the person he wanted to marry, she received me with open arms. She taught us love and I want the new generation to imbibe love in their lives and marriage,” she said.
Mrs Oyinade Teluwo’s burial was well attended by leaders and members of the NNPP in Ogun State including the state Chairman, Barrister John Aina

Nigeria at a Crossroads: The Struggle of the Ordinary Citizen Amidst Systemic Failures

By George Omagbemi Sylvester

Nigeria is tottering under the weight of its own contradictions. A nation richly endowed with natural resources and blessed with an energetic, youthful population has become a shadow of its potential. The ordinary Nigerian today is trapped in a vicious web of misgovernance, corruption and state failure; gasping for air amid deepening economic hardship, relentless insecurity and collapsing institutions.

From the buzzing motor parks of Lagos to the broken classrooms of Zamfara, one question echoes across every corner of this troubled land: How did we get here?

1. Infrastructure in Ruins: A Nation That Can’t Move Forward
From Lagos to Maiduguri, the country’s roads have become death traps, riddled with potholes and unmarked craters. Port Harcourt’s East-West Road, once the artery of the oil-rich Niger Delta, now swallows vehicles during the rainy season. Across the country, street lights flicker uselessly, bridges collapse without warning and public transport remains a nightmare.

The electricity crisis is perhaps the biggest embarrassment of all. Despite over $25 billion sunk into the sector since 1999, Nigeria still generates a shameful 4,000 megawatts of electricity for over 200 million people. In comparison, South Africa; less than half our population produces over 40,000 MW. Tinubu’s government recently installed ₦10 billion worth of solar panels at Aso Rock, while the rest of Nigeria languishes in darkness.

As comedian I Go Dye sarcastically put it: “Light no dey, road no dey, water no dey, but dem go still tell us say change dey. Na wa for una change oh!”

2. Education and Healthcare: Abandoned Foundations
Nigeria’s education sector has collapsed under the weight of decades of neglect. Over 20 million children are out of school; the highest number globally. Public schools are dilapidated with leaking roofs, broken chairs and overworked teachers. Strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are more consistent than school calendars.

The healthcare sector is in worse shape. Many primary healthcare centres are glorified mortuaries, lacking basic drugs and equipment. State hospitals are crumbling. And while the average Nigerian dies in poorly ventilated wards, our leaders jet off to Europe for even routine checkups on public funds.

The World Health Organization ranks Nigeria 163rd out of 191 countries in health system performance. Between 2021 and 2023, over 5,600 Nigerian doctors migrated abroad, fleeing poor wages and unsafe working conditions.

Comedian AY Makun once joked: “In Nigeria, if you no get money and you fall sick, just lie down and start writing your will.” That joke now feels less like comedy and more like prophecy.

3. Insecurity: A Country Under Siege
No part of Nigeria is safe. In the northeast, Boko Haram and ISWAP continue to terrorize communities. In the northwest, bandits and kidnappers rule forests and highways. The middle belt suffers deadly farmer-herder clashes. The southeast is caught between separatist agitators and brutal state crackdowns. And all across the country, cultism, armed robbery, and ritual killings have become daily realities.

According to SBM Intelligence, over 15,000 Nigerians were killed by non-state actors between 2020 and 2023. Farmers are too afraid to go to their fields, worsening hunger and food shortages. Our IDP camps are overcrowded, underfunded, and dangerously unsanitary; turning humanitarian shelters into prisons of misery.

Veteran journalist Kadaria Ahmed aptly noted: “The failure of the Nigerian state to protect its citizens is the greatest indictment of any government.” Yet, the political class marches on with fanfare, oblivious to the carnage around them.

4. Economic Brutality: Starving the People in the Name of Reform
When President Bola Tinubu removed fuel subsidies and floated the naira in 2023, he declared it a “bold reform.” But for ordinary Nigerians, it triggered an economic earthquake. Fuel prices tripled, transport costs skyrocketed and food inflation surged past 35%. Today, over 70 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty.

The World Bank reported that inflation alone pushed four million Nigerians into poverty in just six months of 2023. In northern states, floods destroyed 1.6 million hectares of farmland, enough food to feed 13 million people for a year, according to Reuters. In Borno, the dam collapse compounded Boko Haram’s destruction, forcing thousands into IDP camps now dependent on foreign aid to survive.

As Femi Falana, SAN, rightly observed: “Economic policies must be for the benefit of the people, not just foreign investors or IMF advisers.” In Tinubu’s Nigeria, the rich get tax waivers, and the poor are told to endure.

5. Political Manipulation: Democracy in Name, Tyranny in Practice
Under the APC, democracy is little more than a slogan. Opposition figures are harassed or lured with appointments. Political defectors are welcomed with open arms while anti-graft agencies conveniently “forget” their past.

The declaration of emergency rule in Rivers State after suspicious pipeline explosions is the latest example. Rather than investigate the sabotage, Tinubu suspended the elected governor and installed a retired naval officer as “sole administrator.” Critics call it a political coup masked as crisis management.

Broadcaster Rufai Oseni summed it up best: “We are not just losing faith in government. We are watching the burial of democracy with our own eyes.”

6. The Nigerian Spirit: Laughter in the Face of Pain
In spite of it all, Nigerians continue to laugh. Not because life is good, but because laughter is often the last form of protest. It is our therapy. Our resilience. Our rebellion.

Comedian Gordons once said: “Dem say make we endure, make we no talk. If dem born us well, make dem try endure the way we dey endure for just one week.” The audience laughed. But deep down, we all knew he was telling the truth.

7. A Blueprint for Rebirth: A Nation Must Rise
Enough is enough. Nigeria needs radical surgery; not cosmetic reforms.

Civic Responsibility: Citizens must resist vote-buying, challenge tyranny and speak truth to power.

Institutional Reform: The judiciary, civil service and anti-corruption agencies must be depoliticized and professionalized.

Security Overhaul: Adopt community policing, retrain the armed forces and prioritize intelligence over brute force.

Economic Justice: Introduce safety nets. Subsidize agriculture. Tax wealth. Empower the informal sector.

Human Capital Investment: A nation that abandons its youth and teachers is digging its own grave.

8. A Choice Before Us:
Nigeria stands at a dangerous fork in the road. One path leads to the total breakdown of order, Somalia-style chaos. The other leads to healing, though it will require sacrifice, courage and unity.

Leaders must stop governing for the elite alone. Citizens must awaken from political slumber. The house is on fire. We can’t keep laughing through our tears. We must rise.

As the legendary Chinua Achebe once said: “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.” But the solution lies not just in changing the leaders; it lies in changing what we tolerate, what we demand, and what we’re willing to fight for.

Let Nigeria rise again; not for the few who dwell in comfort behind government gates, but for the many who dream of a country that works.