When the Builder becomes the Burden

There is a painful irony unfolding in Nigeria today. The man celebrated for decades as a builder of politicians, of parties and of political careers has become a heavy load those same people now carry. I am speaking of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

For years, we were told that Asiwaju “builds people.” Some even say he built Lagos, as though a city of millions was not built by the sweat of ordinary Lagosians. Still, no one can deny his reach. He governed Lagos from 1999 to 2007, raised protégés, sponsored candidates and helped put many into high office. He was a key architect of the coalition that became the APC and carried Muhammadu Buhari to victory in 2015, after Buhari had lost three times.

Today, those who celebrated his ability to build political careers must answer another question: what is his presidency doing to the lives of ordinary Nigerians?

The Man Who Opposed What He Now Does

In January 2012, when President Goodluck Jonathan removed fuel subsidy and petrol jumped from ₦65 to ₦141 a litre, the Occupy Nigeria protests shut much of the country down. Tinubu and his political camp opposed the policy. Many Nigerians saw them as defenders of the common man.

On 29 May 2023, the very day he was sworn in, the same man declared that subsidy was gone. Petrol, which sold for ₦184 at NNPC stations in Lagos, rose to ₦488 within days. By July, NNPC’s price in Abuja had reached ₦617.

And where are we today? Recent reporting puts NNPC petrol at about ₦1,355 in Lagos and around ₦1,400 elsewhere. From ₦184 to ₦1,400: an increase of about 661 per cent. More than seven times the price.

Has your salary increased seven times? Has your business income? Has the money you take home grown anything like that?

Yet you must still go to work. You must still feed your children. You must still power your business.

Kayode Fayemi later acknowledged that his party’s opposition to Jonathan’s subsidy removal had been driven more by politics than objective facts, although he disputed the sweeping interpretation that the entire protest was “all politics.”

But the suffering of ordinary protesters in 2012 was not politics. Neither is the suffering of Nigerians today.

The Hardship Is Not Imagination

By December 2024, inflation had reached 34.8 per cent, with food inflation near 40 per cent. Yam, rice, maize and fish, the things that sit on Nigerian tables, became harder for many families to afford.

We hear that inflation is coming down. Good. But prices rising more slowly does not mean that the prices already beyond your reach have come back down.

Tinubu understood this danger before becoming president. In a 2019 speech, he warned that reducing people’s purchasing power could further slow the economy. He was arguing against a VAT increase, while calling for more people to be brought into the tax net.

So he understood the problem. Why, then, have so many Nigerians been left struggling with precisely what he warned against?

The World Bank’s April 2026 update estimated that the share of Nigerians living below the national poverty line rose from 56 per cent in 2023 to 61 per cent in 2024 and 63 per cent in 2025, which is about 140 million people.

That is not just a statistic. That is your neighbour, your fellow church member, your own relative.

You do not need a report to see it. If you were helping ten people before 2023, you are probably helping twenty or thirty today, if you yourself have not joined those who need help. People who used to give now beg. People who never begged have joined the queue.

And while pockets were emptying, graves were filling. Amnesty International reported at least 10,217 people killed in armed-group attacks across the states covered by its findings during Tinubu’s first two years, with Benue and Plateau bearing the heaviest toll.

These problems did not all begin with him. But Nigerians elected a president to confront them. Inherited problems cannot become a permanent excuse for present failures.

“Emi Lokan”: The Declaration

How did a builder become a burden? I believe part of the answer came from his own mouth.

On 2 June 2022 in Abeokuta, days before the APC presidential primary, Tinubu reminded his audience how he had helped Buhari win after repeated defeats, and how he had helped make governors. Then he declared: “Emi lokan,” meaning it is my turn.

In my opinion, that speech revealed a troubling sense of entitlement. It made his years of support and sponsorship look like investments whose repayment had finally become due.

But due from whom? The politicians he helped? Or the Nigerian people?

You may have helped a man become governor. You may have helped another become president. That does not mean that Nigeria owes you the presidency.

Its people are not the payment for debts incurred by your associates.

Whatever his intentions over the years, his presidency must now be judged by what it delivers. The ability to put people into power is no substitute for the ability to improve people’s lives.

A Democrat Must Protect Political Choice

And people must be free to question that record.

Reports of intimidation of Igbo voters in parts of Lagos during the 2023 elections remain a disturbing reminder of what happens when political choice becomes dangerous. Those elections preceded Tinubu’s presidency, but the warning remains relevant today.

Now, as political activities gather pace towards 2027, there are fresh reports of violence. Premium Times reported attacks on NDC supporters and shootings connected with the party’s activities in Enugu on 10 October. The state government denied responsibility; the party demanded an independent investigation.

Whoever is responsible must answer for it.

What kind of democracy tells people they are free to vote, then threatens them over whom they choose? What kind of political victory requires opponents to be frightened into silence?

A president celebrated as a democrat must defend the freedom of people who oppose him. His government must protect their lawful gatherings and ensure that attacks are investigated and offenders brought to justice.

That is where the claim to democracy meets its test.

Criticism Is a Restraint on Power

If someone does wrong, your affection for him does not make it right. Neither does your dislike of him make the evidence disappear.

Sometimes the person who criticises you honestly is doing you more good than the person who applauds everything you do. He reminds you that people are watching. He makes you conscious that your actions have consequences.

Power can corrupt even good people when it goes unchecked. That is why leaders must face scrutiny. That is why citizens must speak.

And poverty makes speaking harder. A man worried about his next meal may have little strength left to challenge those governing him. When political actors exploit that desperation to buy loyalty or silence criticism, poverty becomes a weapon.

We must resist that. People deserve the means to live with dignity and the freedom to decide without fear.

The Cost to His Own People

This is the tragedy for the APC. There may be good men and women in that party, people who on their own merit might earn the trust of their communities. But because they carry Tinubu’s banner, they must also answer for his record.

The man who helped open doors for them may now make those doors harder to walk through.

The builder becomes their liability. The promoter becomes the burden they must explain.

But gratitude must have a limit. You can thank a man for helping your career without defending everything he does. Your responsibility to the people must come before your obligation to a political benefactor.

Our Eyes Must Be Open

Scripture says that by their fruits we shall know them (Matthew 7:16).

The fruit is before us: families struggling to eat, businesses struggling to survive, communities struggling to stay alive.

Making Nigeria great begins with refusing to excuse failure because the person responsible is our favourite politician, our tribesman, our benefactor or a member of our party.

It also means asking serious questions of whoever seeks to replace him. What have you done? What can you deliver? How will we hold you accountable?

Ahead of 2027, we must speak, organise peacefully, insist on free political choice and demand results. Our future is too important to surrender to fear.

The question before every Nigerian is simple: do we want four more years of this?

As for me, I do not. What about you?