ALL THE PRESIDENT’S ENEMIES

How President Tinubu Lost the Nation’s Faith

By Nnaoke Ufere, PhD

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Never in the history of Nigeria’s often antagonistic politics has one man been so maligned by so many, everywhere and all the time. Bola Ahmed Tinubu is so hated, so resented, that it is hard to find a historical parallel.

Our analysts have spent the past three months traveling across Nigeria and engaging with citizens from a wide range of backgrounds, including traders in Kano, elites in Kaduna, students in Nsukka, professors in Calabar, professionals in Lagos, farmers in Benue, civil servants in Abuja, artisans in Onitsha, and members of the diaspora from London to Atlanta, in order to understand the roots of this deep animosity.

What we discovered is that the resentment toward President Tinubu is not monolithic; it is shaped by a mix of regional grievances, economic frustrations, political disillusionment, and personal perceptions of his character, leadership and legacy.

Some see him as the embodiment of a broken political order, while others view him as a man of flawed character whose methods and alliances have come to symbolize the moral compromises, corruption, and mismanagement that define Nigerian politics and career politicians.

Yet beneath the outrage lies a complex narrative that reveals as much about the evolving nature of political legitimacy in Nigeria as it does about the man himself. To understand the depth of this sentiment, one must look beyond abstract theories of governance and turn to the lived experiences of ordinary Nigerians, whose daily struggles give tangible form to this political discontent.

Tinubu’s name evokes anger in the markets of Aba, Onitsha, Kano, and Lagos, where traders curse the policies that emptied their stalls and strangled their profits. It stirs frustration among farmers in Borno and Bauchi, who can no longer till their fields in safety or afford the tools to survive, and deep disillusionment among the rank and file of the armed forces in Abuja and Kaduna, who feel betrayed, underpaid, and abandoned.

It breeds bitterness in the streets of Sokoto, Enugu, Ibadan, and Jalingo, where hunger has become a daily companion, and despair in the corridors of power, where even allies whisper their doubts in private.

The cumulative effect is a nation gripped by exhaustion and disappointment. Every policy seems to produce more pain than progress, every promise more disappointment than hope. Whether in Ibadan, Zaria, Bauchi, Calabar, or Owerri, the mention of Tinubu’s name is met with a sigh, a curse, or a weary shake of the head. His name has become shorthand for hardship, a symbol of how far hope has fallen and how deeply trust has been betrayed.

President Tinubu still has time to change course and restore faith in his leadership, but he shows no sign that he will. The well of ideas has run dry, and the nation waits, weary and disillusioned.

Despite repeated attempts, the administration did not respond to requests for comment on this analysis report by the time of publication.

But why is he a pariah?

Before delving into the reasons, let us first look at the long and ever-growing list of Tinubu’s enemies. These are all those who, through the impact of his leadership or lack thereof, have come to see him as their adversary, the victims of his politics and policies, not his chosen foes. For each, the cause of their animosity tells a sad story of disappointment, deception, conceit, broken promises, and shattered faith in his presidency.

First: The People

Over 200 million impoverished Nigerians have borne the full weight of Tinubu’s policy failures and absence of compassion. From subsidy removals that have turned daily life into daily struggle, to inflation that devours salaries (if you’re lucky to have a job) before payday, to nosebleed unemployment that has denied millions of our young people any means of livelihood, the people feel deceived.

Once promised renewed hope, they now live with renewed hunger. To them, President Tinubu’s policies are poison, the toxin that has claimed the lives of their children, wives, and husbands through starvation, banditry, and preventable deaths caused by the collapse of affordable health care.

Second: The Northern Elites

Once the backbone of every ruling coalition, they now feel alienated and outmaneuvered. Yet it was they who put Tinubu in power. His cold political calculus and perceived neglect of Northern priorities have fractured the old alliance. The Northern elites, long accustomed to influence and deference, now feel displaced by a new power center they neither understand nor control.

The chicken has come home to roost, and the Northern elites do not like what they see. They feel betrayed and are increasingly determined to see Tinubu removed from power through any means available within the political system.

Third: The Southeasterners

As expected, the Southeast remains both alienated and excluded. Once again, its political aspirations have been met with polite indifference and symbolic gestures of inclusion from the Tinubu administration, much like those of its predecessors.

Under Tinubu, however, the region faces not overt hostility but something more subtle and corrosive: benign neglect. Appointments are largely tokenistic, development projects are scarce, and national attention is fleeting. Tinubu, many in the Southeast have concluded, holds no substantive regard for the region.

For a people whose history is marked by unfulfilled promises and enduring alienation, this presidency feels like another cruel repetition of the past, a continuation of a system that demands their enterprise, taxes, and votes but denies their voices and dreams.

What they see is not partnership but exploitation; not belonging but calculated sidelining. To them, Tinubu’s government is not merely distant; it is deliberately indifferent. And like their Northern counterparts, many Igbo elites can hardly wait for the day Tinubu is escorted out of Aso Rock.

Fourth: Disillusioned Southwesterners

Anger against Tinubu cuts across tribal lines, as the suffering is universal. Even within his own communities, the hardship is no less severe. The only ones thriving are his close circle of cronies, loyalists, and praise-singers. Meanwhile, the vast majority of poor Yorubas endure the same struggles as their counterparts in Kano, Umuahia, Uyo, and Port Harcourt.

Many now call for Tinubu’s removal, feeling deeply betrayed and disillusioned by what they see as his poor leadership and lack of empathy for their suffering. A growing number have vowed never to vote for him again.

Fifth: The Former Business Owners

They are the casualties of economic turbulence under Tinubu’s administration. Across the country, small and medium-sized enterprises have collapsed under the weight of erratic exchange rates, soaring fuel, transportation, and electricity costs, and regulatory policies that have suffocated private initiative.

The entrepreneurial dynamism that once defined Nigeria’s urban centers has been eroded by an environment that appears to reward political patronage and entrenched monopolies rather than innovation and competition.

For many of these former business owners, Tinubu has become the embodiment of their loss, the face of a system that destroyed their livelihoods and dreams. Some speak of him not merely with disappointment, but with a bitterness that borders on contempt.

Sixth: The Farmers

Insecurity has turned their cherished farmlands into graveyards. Across the country, farmers flee their homes under the constant threat of armed kidnappers and marauding gangs. No farming community feels safe under this administration.

Many blame Tinubu, who had promised to keep their families and livelihoods secure. Food scarcity, once a looming fear, has now become a harsh reality. The government’s failure to protect the rural economy has left farmers feeling abandoned and betrayed. For them, Tinubu’s presidency represents not only unfulfilled promises but the collapse of a way of life they once took for granted. They too want him out.

Seventh: The Families of the Dead

Hospitals without equipment and medicine, roads that are death traps without rescue services, and inflation that has made life-saving drugs unattainable have created a silent army of grieving families from Aba to Zaria. Their hatred is quiet but profound. They mourn loved ones who did not die from illness alone, but from the slow violence of governmental neglect.

For them, every empty hospital bed, every fatal delay, and every unaffordable prescription stands as an indictment of President Tinubu and a government that has forgotten its most basic duty: to protect life. They would rather see Tinubu replaced than watch another life lost to the failures of his rule.

Eighth: The Rank and File of the Armed Forces

The military, once stoic and loyal, now whispers discontent. Low morale, poor welfare, and the feeling of being used as pawns in political games have fermented resentment against the administration. Rumors swirl in the barracks, whispers of coups and interventions, the language of a disillusioned soldiery.

In their frustration, they see a government that demands loyalty but offers neither honor nor care. They too have begun to question their allegiance, wondering whether the nation they serve still serves them in return. The bayonets are out, waiting for the moment the emperor stumbles.

Ninth: The Youth

The generation that led #EndSARS and dreamed of a new Nigeria feels robbed once again. With no jobs, no opportunities, and no faith in leadership, they see Tinubu not as a father figure but as a relic of a failed past.

Their anger simmers on the streets and explodes on social media, where every hardship finds a hashtag. They want Tinubu gone but remain deeply skeptical of the current opposition, convinced that none among its ranks can be trusted to bring genuine change.

Yet beneath their cynicism lies a restless energy, a willingness to rewrite the nation’s story if given a leader who speaks their language, understands their pain, and embodies the future they were promised.

If such a figure were to emerge, the youth are not only willing but ready to ignite a political youthquake in 2027 and remove Tinubu from the presidency.

Tenth: The International Investors

They came with optimism but are leaving with losses. Erratic currency policies, opaque regulations, and the government’s failure to protect capital have turned Nigeria from an investment destination into a cautionary tale.

Tinubu’s “open for business” slogan now echoes as a cruel joke in global boardrooms. Investors who once saw opportunity now see volatility, uncertainty, and political interference. Many feel deceived by promises of reform that yielded only confusion and contraction.

They want Tinubu out not out of ideology but out of necessity—believing that stability, transparency, and credibility in governance can return only when his administration’s experiment in economic improvisation ends.

Eleventh: The Diaspora

Nigerians abroad once sent money home with pride. Now, they send it with pity. They are ashamed of the decay they left behind and enraged by a government that mocks their sacrifices.

For years, remittances from the diaspora kept families afloat and communities alive, but under Tinubu, even their hard-earned foreign income has been undermined by chaotic exchange rate policies and economic mismanagement.

They watch from afar as the nation’s image deteriorates and its young people flee the same hopelessness they once escaped.

Their social media platforms have become global courtrooms where Tinubu’s leadership is daily tried and condemned. They want him out not merely out of anger, but out of longing for a Nigeria they can return to with dignity, invest in with confidence, and defend with pride.

To them, change is not just political; it is personal, born of both love and loss. If they were allowed to vote, the majority will vote Tinubu out without blinking eyes.

Twelfth: The International Community

From Washington to London, from Brussels to Beijing, Tinubu’s name inspires more skepticism than respect. He began his presidency under a cloud of controversy, haunted by his past and the shadow of U.S. drug-related allegations that eroded his moral legitimacy abroad.

Western diplomats whisper about his erratic economic policies, his failure to secure Nigeria’s oil wealth, and the resurgence of corruption within his administration. Even the United States, once a close strategic ally, now views his inability to contain Boko Haram, ISIS-affiliated networks, and rising insecurity as a threat to regional stability.

Nigeria, once hailed as the cornerstone of African democracy, now appears to the world as a crumbling experiment under a leader it never fully trusted. The international community wants Tinubu out not out of hostility, but out of frustration.

They see his continued rule as a barrier to the stability, transparency, and governance needed to restore confidence in Africa’s largest economy and most populous democracy. For them, change in Abuja is not only a Nigerian necessity but a geopolitical imperative.

Thirteenth: The Media

Journalists who dare to question are intimidated, harassed, or silenced. The free press, already fragile, now suffocates under subtle censorship, financial pressure, and fear. Newsrooms face raids, editors are threatened with lawsuits, and critical voices are denied access to official information. The Fourth Estate has become the newest battleground for truth, and Tinubu often appears on the opposing side.

Yet not all the media are against him. A powerful network of loyal outlets, sustained by government advertising, political patronage, and private influence, continues to praise the president and amplify his narrative of reform and resilience. These platforms celebrate his every policy as progress, drowning out dissent with orchestrated optimism.

But many independent journalists have turned against him, not out of ideology, but out of disillusionment. They see a government that treats truth as a threat, criticism as treason, and accountability as an inconvenience.

For them, Tinubu’s presidency represents the corrosion of democratic space and the shrinking of journalistic freedom. They want him out because they believe the survival of a free press, and by extension, of Nigerian democracy itself depends on it.

The Anatomy of a Pariah: How Tinubu Lost the Nation’s Faith

Now to the question of why he is so hated by so many.

Flawed Character

Heraclitus once said that the destiny of a nation is the character of its leader. Tinubu’s character was there for Nigerians to see, yet many still chose to overlook it, valuing alleged vote bribes over integrity. In doing so, the electorate mistook cunning for wisdom and ambition for capacity.

Character is not built in office; it is revealed there. Tinubu’s tenure has stripped away the myth and exposed the man: transactional, vindictive, and unrepentantly self-assured. Those who mistook his survival instincts for genius now see the cost of elevating a tactician without principle to power.

In Tinubu, a leader’s private morality becomes a nation’s public tragedy. The arrogance and opportunism that shaped Tinubu’s rise now define the nation itself. Patronage masquerades as policy, loyalty replaces merit, and deceit passes for strategy.

Nigeria’s decay is not only institutional but moral. Time and again, we have ignored the moral fitness of those who lead us, and time and again, we have inherited their vices. Tinubu is not Nigeria’s accident; he is its mirror.

And from that flawed character flowed policies equally flawed, dressed as reform but driven by vanity and greed.

The Illusion of Reform

Tinubu promised renewal, but Nigeria received decay dressed as reform. His economic agenda, sold as bold and inevitable, plunged millions deeper into poverty. The currency devaluation that was meant to attract investors destroyed small businesses, and the subsidy removal that was meant to save revenue shattered purchasing power.

The reformer’s mask has fallen. What remains is a ruler who mistakes punishment for policy and hardship for progress. Nigerians are told to tighten their belts while those in power loosen theirs. Reform is not reform when it enriches the few and impoverishes the many. Tinubu’s Nigeria is not being rebuilt; it is being dismantled before our eyes.

The Cost of Arrogance

Tinubu’s gravest failure lies not only in policy but in perception. Surrounded by flatterers, he governs from an echo chamber of praise while the streets drown in despair. Dissent is treated as disloyalty, criticism as conspiracy, and public outrage as ignorance.

Leadership requires empathy, but Tinubu’s politics are built on calculation, not compassion. His refusal to acknowledge failure and his insistence that “things will get better” while they worsen have deepened the gulf between him and the people he governs. Arrogance breeds isolation, and in governance, isolation breeds downfall.

The Curse of Entitlement Politics

Tinubu’s rise was not driven by vision or competence but by entitlement. His infamous “It is my turn” declaration in 2023 exposed the rot at the core of Nigerian politics, a belief that power is inherited, not earned if you’re from the privileged region.

He governs as if Nigeria were a personal estate, rewarding loyalty over competence and vengeance over vision. Around him stand courtiers, not counselors, not experts. Policies serve patrons, not the people. In such a system, mediocrity thrives and accountability dies. This is Tinbub’s Nigeria.

The curse of his entitlement mentality is blindness to suffering, to consequence, and to history. When leadership becomes inheritance, the nation becomes collateral damage. Again, this is Tinubu’s Nigeria.

The Unforgiving Judgment of History

History is written not by power but by consequence. Tinubu inherited a broken system and made it worse. We will remember this period when children went to bed hungry, youths and investors fled, farmers abandoned their fields, and the sick prayed for healing that never came.

Tinubu will not be judged by the titles he held, but by the lives diminished under his rule. When the noise fades, one verdict will remain: Bola Ahmed Tinubu presided over a nation in pain and he made it worse. That’s his legacy.

Epilogue: The Reckoning in 2027

Tinubu’s enemies are not just the angry or the hungry. His greatest adversary is history itself. And when history finally speaks, it will do so with a voice that cannot be silenced. The tragedy is not that he has so many enemies; it is that he has earned every one of them.

Therefore, the people must not forget. The poor must remember who took away their bread, the youth must remember who crushed their dreams, and the soldiers must remember who betrayed their service. Silence is not surrender; it is a gathering storm.

The storm must break in 2027, and the ashes from the youthquake will carry away the remnants of a corrupt old order that has inflicted so much suffering and destruction on millions of impoverished Nigerians. From that reckoning will rise the beginning of a New Nigeria, one envisioned not only for ourselves and our families, but for generations yet to come.

But Nigerians must be prepared and vigilant. Every election season brings familiar threats to democracy: intimidation at the polls, vote buying, suppression, manipulation of counts, and the misuse of institutions meant to guarantee fairness. These dangers are not new, but they can no longer be ignored.

The 2027 election must be different. Citizens, civil society, and the international community will work together to ensure transparency, protect voters, and defend the sanctity of the ballot. 2023 was a lesson; 2027 must be a reckoning.

*About the Author

Nnaoke Ufere is a leading voice in African public thought and policy. He writes a weekly opinion column for the African Mind Journal, where his work shapes national conversations on leadership, governance, and reform. He is the author of Covenant With Nigerians: Reversing Our Country’s Decline. Nnaoke graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka with a first class honors degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering in 1981. A Harvard MBA alumnus and PhD holder in Strategic Management from Case Western Reserve University, Ufere is an influential author, public intellectual, and global development analyst whose insights on U.S.-Africa relations and institutional accountability continue to challenge the status quo and inspire change.