WHILE pondering over the current sub-par economic situation of Nigeria, despite six decades of post-independence policy-making and political rhetoric amid abundant natural and human resources, I sampled the opinion of renowned economists, loyalists and critics of this administration. The feedback, which aligned with my long-held opinion, was almost the same regardless of their leanings.
The consensus was that, despite the misleading but widely accepted notion that Nigeria’s problems are too complex to be tackled significantly in four years, lessons from less endowed African nations have shown that a leader can rewrite the worst of history by shutting out economic marauders and self-serving praise singers who stand between him and reality.
There are enough examples around the world to show that a leader does not necessarily have to be a first-class brain to be able to fix the problems peculiar to his country, so long as there are competent, committed and patriotic advisers whose main objectives, in line with campaign promises, would be to diligently implement reforms that can palpably ameliorate the living standards of citizens without ambiguity. This is why it is often said that a leader is as good as his team.
In the Nigerian context, the team members are both official and non-official. Interestingly, the non-official members, who find their way into the problematic cabals that have characterised the Aso Rock Villa, from one administration to another, have, however, over the years, proved even trickier than some official players who are tagged inefficient yet egocentric.
Nigeria’s leaders have not been the worst of the global pack. The problem, from one regime to the other, has been the age-long illusion of satisfactory performance when the journey has not even started. No thanks to political jobbers and sycophants who are ever ready to hoodwink a mentally alert leader into believing that an albino is a white man, if it would translate into money in their pockets.
Sadly, even smart, experienced leaders with global exposure, who should have made a mark in record time by turning constructive criticism into political and economic advantage, have fallen flat for the deceit of these sycophants while mistaking hypocrisy for loyalty.
The late former President Shehu Shagari, Nigeria’s first democratically elected president after the military transferred power in 1979, might not have fully realised the implications of this high-risk banana skin until he left power on December 31, 1983. This was even though he held various frontline positions before he became President, from Minister of Economic Development (then Federal Commissioner), to Works and Minister of Finance.
Advising a former Governor of Sokoto State, Aliyu Wamakko, who had paid him a courtesy visit in his village, as the sitting governor, in September 2007, Shagari said any leader determined to succeed must check the activities of sycophants.
The late former President said, “Sycophants within the corridors of power have made it difficult for leaders to be aware of the problems facing their people and what to do to alleviate their suffering. This has led to poverty and underdevelopment. So, as far as I’m concerned, political leaders should keep them at an arm’s length if they want the country to move forward.”
The onus, he added, was on leaders to listen to the yearnings and aspirations of their people and accommodate constructive criticism. “Without this, there will be dictatorship and chaos in the polity,” Shagari warned.
This is why some of us who believed in the Renewed Hope Agenda because of the driver’s unrivalled track record of anointing successive achievers that made Lagos a reference point in the nation’s history of socio-economic development, find it difficult to keep quiet when position-thirsty and “anywhere belle face” overnight loyalists try to paint a deceitful “all-is-well” picture for the President when a lot could still have been done to salvage a problematic situation with the first ‘red flag’.
In a desperate bid to atone for their past caustic utterances against the ruling All Progressives Congress or President Bola Tinubu, especially having been graciously allowed into the circle, the current sycophants annoyingly stand logic on its head while defending what should have been explained more acceptably, considering local and international impediments against the desired situation.
For instance, no matter how one looks at it, any patriotic citizen must be worried about Nigeria’s current total public debt (external and domestic), which, according to the Debt Management Office, had risen to over N159tn as of December 31, 2025, from about N87tn in the second quarter of 2023. Despite this, the country has continued to borrow with speedy National Assembly approvals to fund outlined critical projects.
Instead of offering compelling reasons for the situation and tying the debts to future growth considerations, some of those misleading the administration laughably asked experts to present the dollar value of the debt layout to the public. Where did they put the facts that the naira actually depreciated from its mid-2023 value, and that the depreciated naira makes servicing foreign debt increasingly expensive?
Still, in a situation like this, one may decide to see the cup as half full or half empty. At the current level, Nigeria’s debt-to-Gross Domestic Product ratio still hovers around 33 per cent, well below the 60 per cent benchmark for fiscal sustainability. It may, however, be safer to consider the half-empty interpretation, particularly when the nation’s debt service-to-revenue ratio has been consistently above 60 per cent, much more than the World Bank’s recommended threshold of 22.5 per cent.
Inasmuch as the Federal Government has actually embarked on bold, growth-oriented policy reforms, as evidenced by the modest gains identified by economists, there is no comfort that the increased borrowing is being put to more productive use than servicing existing debts and rolling over prior obligations. It would take the right team that can match the anticipated capacity of the President to diligently prioritise the growth of non-oil sectors and generate new revenue sources that can help reduce unmitigated debt-related risk/burden.
At this time in the history of Nigeria’s controversial democracy, the President needs real loyalists whose priority would be to lay a solid foundation for a good chapter for him in the book of history, even in activities relating to core politics.
Right now, third columnists are trying so hard to rechristen a President otherwise known as a democrat by creating self-serving scenarios akin to autocracy.
There is no gainsaying the fact that, in Nigeria, there are too many interests to contend with, many of which are detrimental to economic growth. But the President must be careful not to fall for the deceit of politicians, especially those who were once on the other side.
A typical political jobber would, particularly in this election season, not only lick the President’s boot but also create a selfish structure to secure his future.
When the mind of everyone in a team is distracted, especially now that members are positioning themselves for continued relevance in the next administration if the APC wins, the leader, according to Oren Harari, in his book, Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell, “must be doubly vigilant”.
The days remaining may seem too few for the Tinubu administration to disregard sycophants, shut out economic marauders and prioritise the well-being of citizens beyond the level currently being considered as satisfactory. But, according to Powell, leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible! There is, therefore, no better time to act than now.
- Dr Kolapo is publisher of The Point and her column, Compass, runs on the back page of the Punch newspaper on Monday. The column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Tuesday.