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Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga - Politics - Nairaland

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Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by DoWhatThouWilt(op): 6:02pm On May 28
With politicking intensifying ahead of the January 2027 election, opposition politicians have escalated their campaign of misinformation and calumny to diminish the impact and achievements of this administration over the last three years.

By Bayo Onanuga

Two years ago, when the administration was struggling to deal with the unintended consequences of its historic reforms, the campaign would have made sense. But not anymore, as the administration can rightly claim bragging rights for what it has achieved against all odds and why the international community is applauding it for putting Nigeria irrevocably on the path of growth and development.

The impact of the three-year-old government is best felt at the subnational level – state and local levels. States that hitherto were unable to pay salaries by May 2023, with months of unpaid obligations to their workers and pensioners, are now doing so with ease and dreaming big about infrastructure. In every state I have visited, I have seen this development. Ogun, my state, Oyo, Nasarawa, Enugu, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Katsina, and others have witnessed development projects spring up, thanks to President Tinubu’s re-engineering of the federation’s finances and increased allocation to the states. When local councils begin to receive their allocations directly from the Federation Account, the Tinubu effect will ensure that more governance cascades down to the 774 local councils.

State governors who have benefited from this policy have openly admitted that increased allocations have enabled them to bring social and infrastructural development to their states. Many opposition PDP governors who joined the APC did so for this reason—not for the baseless claim that President Tinubu bribed them. Governor Abdulrazak said in December 2024 that his administration embarked on more projects in the first 18 months of Tinubu’s presidency than in his first four years. The Governor of Ebonyi, Nwifuru, who is building iconic underpasses and overpasses in Abakaliki, credited his ambition to President Tinubu. Governor Peter Mbah similarly attested to this, crediting the Naira rain from the centre for his programmes. And Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule, who understands how Tinubu’s financial re-engineering and the end of the subsidy regime have increased the states’ fortunes, said President Tinubu “has taken the bullets for all of them.”

In May 2023, President Tinubu inherited acute petrol scarcity, an unsustainable petrol subsidy regime due to expire in June 2023, multiple exchange rates, arbitrage, and low revenue, with at least 30 states unable to pay workers, let alone fund infrastructure and social projects. Debt servicing consumed 97 per cent of Federal revenue. Additionally, food scarcity and inflation plagued the country as farmers abandoned their fields, recording massive losses amid the currency squeeze introduced by former CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele.

President Tinubu, guided by the Renewed Hope Agenda, wasted no time. He threw the ruinous subsidy out of the window from Day One. Days later, he floated the Naira and ended the artificial fixing of the Naira-to-dollar exchange rate, a system that had enabled well-connected individuals to profit effortlessly. Tinubu declared a food emergency and announced the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms to examine our outdated tax laws, some of which date back to the colonial era. Immediate gains included encouraging dry-season farming, with subsidies and inputs provided for farmlands abutting dams and irrigation sites in at least 14 states.

Even by President Tinubu’s admission, the early months and the first year were tough as the government implemented its programme. The cost of living went up, and businesses claimed the harmonised exchange rate had put them in the red. A few companies even closed shop and left our shores. On the streets, some Nigerians claimed that the policies have left them hungry, a sentiment the opposition still parrots to this day, without any empirical proof. If not sure of the salience of his reforms, President Tinubu would have taken a reverse gear in fright and abandoned all the new reform policies amid the avalanche of attacks from critics and opposition elements in the media. Instead, he persisted.

Two years after the first challenging year, the story has changed for good. However, some opposition elements are stuck in the sentiment of 2023/24, unyielding and adamant about acknowledging the many gains and milestones achieved by the Tinubu administration. But only the blind will fail to admit that this government has taken the country miles away from the state it inherited in 2023.

The stock market is clear proof of the administration’s economic success. In May 2023, Tinubu met the All-Share Index at 53,000 points and the market capitalisation at N30 Trillion. Today, the ASI has risen five times, to a record 250,000 and a market capitalisation of N160 Trillion. Blue-chip companies, including those initially negatively impacted by government policies, are declaring record profits and dividends. Equally, foreign portfolio investors are flocking in to partake in the Nigerian boom. This is not a bubble. It shows that a fundamental paradigm shift has occurred in the economy, all thanks to the Tinubu administration’s policy direction.

In recent weeks, I revisited the manifesto and policy ambitions that won us the election. The Tinubu administration has faithfully implemented its Renewed Hope Agenda, striving to resolve in three years the cumulative problems of decades.

Roads that will outlast this generation are being built nationwide. I recently went home to Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, and was amazed that the highway to my town from the Shagamu intersection now has a concrete pavement, thick enough to withstand the traffic of trailers from the West to the East. The most audacious road projects ever undertaken by any administration since independence are the Illela-Sokoto-Badagry and the Lagos-Calabar coastal superhighways. President Shehu Shagari conceived the Sokoto-Badagry highway in the early 80s. Succeeding administrations, afraid of the huge cost, abandoned the road. The Lagos-Calabar has also been on the map for decades, but no leader has ever dared to turn the idea into reality. President Tinubu has proven to be a transformative leader who has decided to turn the roads into reality, adding new roads to our road network for the first time, beyond those we inherited from the colonialists. Myopic critics of the two roads have assailed the Tinubu administration for taking loans to accomplish them. How else could the roads have been built if we rely only on FG’s share from FAAC? Relying solely on federal allocations would mean waiting 50 years or more, with costs ballooning out of reach, as in the metro-rail to nowhere started by presidential aspirant Rotimi Chibuke Amaechi in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. In the states, governors are building roads of similar standards. I saw some of these in Ogun, Kaduna, Ebonyi and Enugu.

As with roads, the Tinubu administration is also investing heavily in rail transportation, with the Kaduna-Kano-Gusau-Maraadi rail network scheduled for completion next year. City rail networks in Kaduna, Lagos, Kano and Enugu have been approved for construction, along with the Lekki-Ibadan rail.

When historians write about the Tinubu administration in 2031, they will not remember it only for audacious road and rail networks, but also for historic reforms. The oil and gas sector is one area in which the administration has impacted the country. Apart from ending the regime of wasteful subsidies, the government has instituted reforms that have made the sector attractive to fresh investment. International Oil Companies(IOCs) that once shunned our country are returning with billions of dollars in investment. Domestic refining and the innovative Naira-for-crude policy are ensuring energy security, thereby avoiding acute scarcity arising from the disruptive war against Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. More recently, the administration enacted a policy requiring the NNPC to remit oil sales proceeds to the Federation account.

When historians write about the Tinubu administration in 2031, they will not remember it only for audacious road and rail networks, but also for historic reforms. In the oil and gas sector, the government ended wasteful subsidies, instituted reforms to attract fresh investment, and brought international oil companies back to Nigeria. Domestic refining and the innovative Naira-for-crude policy are ensuring energy security, avoiding disruptions from global crises. Recently, NNPC was required to remit oil sales proceeds to the Federation Account.

Confronted by the administration’s stellar performance, the opposition and media propagandists dredged up a campaign video of the President promising a 24/7 power supply. They distorted his words. What he actually said was: “Whichever way, by all means necessary, you will have electricity, and you will not pay for an estimated bill anymore. A promise made will be a promise kept. If I don’t keep the promise and I come for a second term, don’t vote for me, unless I give you adequate reasons why I couldn’t deliver.”

What the distorters failed to admit was that the Discos, privatised since 2013 by President Goodluck Jonathan, are responsible for delivering power to the end consumers, not the Federal Government. What this government has done in the last three years has been to address the problems hindering the capacity of Discos to deliver, such as bringing Siemens to strengthen the grid, activating idle GENCOs, and planning to clear the N4 trillion legacy debts owed to GENCOs and GASCos, which will encourage new investments in the sector. The government has also massively implemented its metering policy, providing over 2.5 million meters to homes. Recently, the Tinubu administration announced the establishment of GAMCO, the Grid Asset Management Company, which will optimise power supply and activate idle facilities.

One of the administration’s impactful programmes, apart from issuing passports in less than a week, is the introduction of NELFUND and CREDICORP in 2024. While Credicorp is making loans available to civil servants to buy Made-In-Nigeria products, NELFUND, with N282 billion committed so far, has made tertiary education more accessible for our children. About 1.6 million Nigerian students have benefited. Payment of school fees and stipends is assured for the children, and the government has also renegotiated the 2009 ASUU-FG agreement, such that in the last three years, our universities, along with the Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, have been spared the disruptive academic strikes. Let’s give the Tinubu government some slack: a four-year programme is now a four-year programme. He promised it during the campaign and has delivered. The government has also invested in technical schools, offering students pursuing vocational education allowances. In the universities, TETFUND is once again funding research grants for dons willing to pursue ideas that will be useful to our society.

Among impactful programmes, apart from issuing passports in less than a week, are NELFUND and CREDICORP, introduced in 2024. Credicorp makes loans available to civil servants for Made-In-Nigeria products, while NELFUND, with N282 billion committed, has made tertiary education more accessible. About 1.6 million students have benefited. School fees and stipends are assured, and the government has renegotiated the 2009 ASUU-FG agreement, sparing universities from disruptive strikes. Today, a four-year programme in the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education is completed in four years. Technical schools offer allowances to vocational students, and TETFUND is funding research grants to academics.

It has not been all rosy the past three years, especially in the area of making our people safe from the band of bandits and terrorists. While the armed forces have been locked in an asymmetrical war against these heartless elements, neutralising their leaders and foot soldiers in several theatres of conflict, the displaced terrorists are attacking vulnerable areas in some of the states, killing and kidnapping. The government is unrelenting in providing the armed forces, intelligence agencies, and police with the tools they need to wage the war. With support from friendly governments like the US, France, and the UK, there is hope that the menace of kidnappers and their political sponsors will become history. The man who has taken the bullets to make Nigeria survive a fiscal disaster is even more willing to take additional bullets to make all Nigerians safe.

Onanuga is Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy.
Source: https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2026/05/28/bola-tinubu-the-man-who-took-the-bullet-for-nigeria-to-survive/

Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by DoWhatThouWilt(op): 6:03pm On May 28
Lol grin

I LOVE this Bayo guy.

E no send una. He and his family are enjoying life, all thanks to tinubu.

Yes, you are free to type your usual keypad online insults at him to make you feel good and special but remember that it wont change anything.

You will still kindly return back to smiling and suffering.
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by LibertyRep: 6:06pm On May 28
If not because the opposition must always talk, Tinubu deserves his flowers for the economy. Nigeria would have been like Argentina or Senegal.

You all screamed subsidy removal, what were people thinking would happen when subsidy of fuel and dollar were removed? Prices of items will come down.

He however deserves all the criticism on the insecurity, he too didn't give Jonathan a breathing space.
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Ofunaofu: 6:07pm On May 28
Bayo Onanuga is a mád man

Fact!
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by MrEar(m): 6:09pm On May 28
DoWhatThouWilt:
Yes, you are free to type your usual keypad online insults at him to make you feel good and special but remember that it wont change anything.

You will still kindly return back to smiling and suffering.
grin grin grin grin

This guy, u get problem o...serious wan cheesy
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by happney65: 6:10pm On May 28
"with at least 30 states unable to pay workers,"

Abeg which 30 states were unable to pay workers in 2023 abeg I wan know. grin

Even right now there are still states that still owe pensions and gratuities in billions of naira and owes contractors anyhow

These yeye people think we are still in the era of the print media where they throw lies unchecked

You bulabalu supporters should talk about the 30 states that could not pay salaries in 2023


Your time starts NOW!!!
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by MemphitzDgreat1(m): 6:16pm On May 28
On this exact day 3 years ago, Nigerians bought a litre of fuel at less than N200, indomie was less than N100, a bottle of coca-cola was about N200. At the same time, several BATists were fooling themselves that by the next day (29th May 2023), "prosperity" will descend on Nigeria because useless Tinubu was going to be sworn in la. 24 hours later, fuel price jumped to over N500 in one day and today, it sells at over N1350 per litre. Prices of foodstuff and other commodities also went up and since then, both stupid BATists and other innocent Nigerians have been groaning in serious economic pains and poverty which they have not recovered from. Truly, when a righteous man is in power, people will rejoice but when a criminal gets into power, people will groan and cry. May Tinubu never happen to Nigeria again. Amen.
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Tenses: 6:21pm On May 28
DoWhatThouWilt:
Lol grin

I LOVE this Bayo guy.

E no send una. He and his family are enjoying life, all thanks to tinubu.

Yes, you are free to type your usual keypad online insults at him to make you feel good and special but remember that it wont change anything.

You will still kindly return back to smiling and suffering.
Whatabout you?

As onanuga is dining and enjoying, you self no like enjoyment too. Na this 30k go sustain you for your old age?
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Tenses: 6:24pm On May 28
All these long epistle will not return that profound failure to office as the president.

Onanuga is very stupid... VDM, 2026.
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Artiiclebeast: 6:43pm On May 28
Nigeria would have appreciated him if he had dodged the bullet and allowed Nigeria to receive it by itself.
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by slivertongue: 6:44pm On May 28
What a joke. The man is destroying the country
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Ambitioustudent(m): 6:52pm On May 28
Like seriously, where do you put our past heroes?
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by chipet67(m): 6:52pm On May 28
He no take better bullet bro
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Tjra: 6:52pm On May 28
Artiiclebeast:
Nigeria would have appreciated him if he had dodged the bullet and allowed Nigeria to receive it by itself.
Better than having PO an Abacha boy put the bullets on us.

Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by jaxxy(m): 6:52pm On May 28
By enriching his pocket and friends? undecided

Bayo yes tinubu came in at a very difficult time but he was the architect of that misfortune by bringing buhari to power but lets forgive that mistake because many of us nigerians also wanted jonathan out but then he gets into power by hook or crook and in sheer arrogance sets everywhere on fire and chaos then starts trying to quench the fire he created by pouring petrol on it? Grand corruption, incompetence and nepotism is the trademark of his government. Is that how hes taking a bullet to fix nigeria? undecided
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by ratcock: 6:52pm On May 28
I didn’t even bother reading this piece of trash
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by brightzstart: 6:53pm On May 28
What did I just read abeg? undecided
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by tuoyoojo(m): 6:53pm On May 28
How has tulumbu improved the life of the average Nigerian
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Eba50:
a pathological liar is bayo ONU-nuga, a man lying in daytime
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Counterigbolies: 6:54pm On May 28
DoWhatThouWilt:
Lol grin

I LOVE this Bayo guy.

E no send una. He and his family are enjoying life, all thanks to tinubu.

Yes, you are free to type your usual keypad online insults at him to make you feel good and special but remember that it wont change anything.

You will still kindly return back to smiling and suffering.
y not dispute all he said?

Ur usual method, once u have nothing to say just attack d messenger
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by nairalanda1(m):
MemphitzDgreat1:
On this exact day 3 years ago, Nigerians bought a litre of fuel at less than N200,
And we were struggling to keep that fuel at N200 liters , by borrowing and by running up a lot of debt.

That is why GEJ wanted to remove fuel subsidy in 2012. The cost of maintaning it was running high, and we were getting into more debt. That is why past governments too wanted to remove subsidy...because the amount needed to maintain it was far too much.

And that is why tinubu removing subsidy was karma hitting him, because he opposed it in 2012, when he knew what was happening, and would have known how bad it was. And yes, it got so bad that he was forced to remove it when he came into power.

You can call me government supporter, but that N200 was really N200 plus debt and more debt.

The only way you can get cheap things in this country is not to let government control any price of anything, because na fake life e go give una.

If you wantfuel at N200 now, the government would have to take nearly half the budget to pay for the subsidy. That means a loan would be taken to cover the hole left by that payment for the subsidy..which means more debt. And if you want President Obi to do the same when he takes over, by the grace of God, next year, you want our debt to be eventually so high that it would make our current debt look like chicken feed.

I don talk my own.

P.S I can remember when coke was N1.50 and indomie was less than N3 back in the day, and back then, Nigerians were complaining the same way they are complaining under TInubu now. That tells me that we need a new leadership that would do things differently, not one that would be voted in on slogans, same way nigerians did for tinubu...see where we are now.
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by ponishah: 6:55pm On May 28
DoWhatThouWilt:
With politicking intensifying ahead of the January 2027 election, opposition politicians have escalated their campaign of misinformation and calumny to diminish the impact and achievements of this administration over the last three years.



Source: https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2026/05/28/bola-tinubu-the-man-who-took-the-bullet-for-nigeria-to-survive/
I will rather die than to vote for Tinubu - the worst president ever in Africa
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Counterigbolies: 6:55pm On May 28
ratcock:
I didn’t even bother reading this piece of trash
u won't read it cos it's not a thread about your agulu packaged fraud
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by AMINDA: 6:55pm On May 28
Are these Snake oil merchants still on these? No-one is buying it. Where are the savings from the "bold reforms"? Tinubu has outborrowed all previous governments.
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Counterigbolies: 6:56pm On May 28
ponishah:
I will rather die than to vote for Tinubu - the worst president ever in Africa
u said more than this in 2023

Wait, u don't have to die...u will live to see him rule u till 2031
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Risingblue008(m): 6:56pm On May 28
Took fire for him papa head for there,
I don't understand,
These pple are taking us for granted
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Jydolomo: 6:56pm On May 28
F9 in all his subjects and you are busy defending failure. Every person defending failed person is also a failure. Address the issue at hand. Thanks
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by TheStoriesOfMan: 6:57pm On May 28
Artiiclebeast:
Nigeria would have appreciated him if he had dodged taken the bullet and allowed Nigeria to dodge it.
Fixed the truth for you.

1 more character needed.
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by zinaunreal(m): 6:57pm On May 28
Bola Tinubu, the last evil president of Nigeria

No evil man can rule Nigeria again
Quote me anywhere
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by ukaegbuikedia: 6:59pm On May 28
A country that can not secure it's citizens is a FAILED COUNTRY.

there is both food insecurity, wanton loss of lives and properties, high level of banditry, corruption with impunity.

And the president is docile. This is failure
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by zoedew:
DoWhatThouWilt:
With politicking intensifying ahead of the January 2027 election, opposition politicians have escalated their campaign of misinformation and calumny to diminish the impact and achievements of this administration over the last three years.



Source: https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2026/05/28/bola-tinubu-the-man-who-took-the-bullet-for-nigeria-to-survive/
Bayo Onanuga, even if you write the ink dry FACTS ARE SACRED AND THEY WILL REMAIN SO! Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised to deliver on the provision of stable electricity in Nigeria and did say we should consider him unelectable if he fails to do so by 2027. So far he has failed and rubbed it in our faces by installing billions of Naira worth of Solar power in the State House where he lives. What other evidence of failure in that respect do we need! Also, Tinubu has performed dismally in keeping the realm safe and is worse still in the matter of transparency in the running of government preferring instead to posture as an Emperor! Bayo Onanuga, just keep drinking the milk your mouth is stuck on to! Posterity, as they say, will judge you even as your children and their coming generations read this gaslight of a piece!!! Washout!!!
Re: Bola Tinubu: The Man Who Took The Bullet For Nigeria To Survive -by Bayo Onanuga by Hungrychicken(m): 6:59pm On May 28
This Onanuga is a menance. We’ve had countless of them, each singing praises for their incompetent messiahs. But, Where are they today? It’s just a game; loot, sing praises and run away.

Lie Mohammed do pass this one
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