Three Years Later, Nigerians Are Still Waiting for the “Renewed Hope”
By Matthew Eloyi
By all standards, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s third anniversary speech was polished, confident, and carefully crafted to project optimism. It was filled with impressive statistics, ambitious infrastructure claims, and repeated assurances that “sacrifices” made by Nigerians would eventually produce prosperity. But beyond the rhetoric and grand declarations lies a painful reality that millions of Nigerians experience every day: hunger, insecurity, unemployment, inflation, and despair.
The tragedy of the President’s speech is not merely that it exaggerates achievements. It is that it appears disconnected from the lived experiences of ordinary Nigerians.
For a government that came into office promising “Renewed Hope,” the dominant feeling across the country today is renewed hardship.
The President insists that the economy has “stabilised” and is “moving forward again.” Yet for millions of families, daily survival has become a brutal struggle. Food prices remain outrageously high. Transportation costs have doubled or tripled in many cities. Rent is becoming unaffordable. Small businesses are collapsing under the weight of inflation, energy costs, and weak consumer purchasing power.
The removal of fuel subsidy may have been economically defensible in theory, but the Tinubu administration implemented it with shocking insensitivity and little preparation for the social consequences. Nigerians were told to endure temporary pain for long-term gain. Three years later, the pain remains immediate and unbearable, while the promised gains remain largely abstract.
The government celebrates rising stock market figures and increasing market capitalisation, but these numbers mean little to the average citizen who cannot afford basic groceries. A booming stock exchange does not feed hungry children in Kano, Aba, or Maiduguri. Corporate profits do not automatically translate into improved living conditions for struggling workers and unemployed graduates.
This administration has mastered the language of macroeconomic performance while ignoring the collapse of household economics.
The President speaks proudly about roads, railways, housing projects, and foreign investments. Infrastructure is important, no doubt. But Nigerians are asking a more fundamental question: how has any of this improved our daily lives?
Many of the flagship projects repeatedly advertised by the administration remain incomplete, inaccessible, or surrounded by controversy. The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, for instance, has generated more debate over transparency, procurement, and priorities than public confidence. At a time when hospitals lack essential equipment and universities suffer chronic underfunding, many Nigerians question whether prestige mega-projects should take precedence over urgent human needs.
On security, the President’s remarks were perhaps the most troubling. He claims communities are becoming safer and criminal networks are being weakened. Yet killings, kidnappings, banditry, and terrorism continue to terrorise many parts of the country. Farmers remain afraid to return fully to their lands. Entire communities still live under fear. Nigerians travelling by road continue to pray more than they trust the state for protection.
A government cannot declare victory over insecurity while citizens continue to live in fear.
Equally disturbing is the widening disconnect between political elites and ordinary people. While citizens tighten their belts, government officials continue to live extravagantly. Convoys grow longer. Public spending remains excessive. Political office holders still enjoy enormous privileges in a country where millions cannot afford three meals a day.
The President calls for sacrifice, but sacrifice without shared responsibility becomes oppression.
The speech repeatedly invoked patriotism, resilience, and national unity. Those are noble ideals. But patriotism cannot survive indefinitely on empty stomachs. Citizens cannot continue to be told to “keep hope alive” while governance fails to deliver measurable relief.
Nigerians are not asking for miracles. They are asking for competent leadership, accountability, transparency, and empathy. They want a government that understands that economic reforms are not successful simply because foreign investors applaud them or financial institutions approve them. Reforms are successful when ordinary citizens can live with dignity.
The Tinubu administration deserves credit for confronting some long-avoided structural problems in the economy. But courage in policymaking must be matched by competence in implementation and compassion in governance. What Nigerians have witnessed too often is economic shock without adequate cushioning, ambition without inclusion, and promises without visible relief.
Perhaps the most revealing part of the President’s speech was his repeated insistence that Nigerians should remain hopeful. But hope is not sustained by speeches. Hope is sustained by evidence – by improved living standards, affordable food, reliable electricity, functioning hospitals, quality schools, secure communities, and meaningful jobs.
Three years into this administration, too many Nigerians are still waiting for that evidence.
History will not judge this government by the eloquence of its speeches or the size of its infrastructure announcements. It will judge it by whether ordinary Nigerians became safer, freer, and more prosperous.
And on that score, many citizens believe the verdict is still painfully uncertain.