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As the year 2025 winds down, several promises made and goals set by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration have remained unmet amid calls on the government to retrace its steps to achieve results.
President Tinubu had set some targets bordering on the economy, security, employment, revenue generation, poverty reduction and youth engagement during the year, but 12 months down the line, analysts say the promises are largely unfulfilled.
At the presentation of the 2025 budget to the National Assembly on December 18, 2024, the president revealed that the goals of advancing national security, creating economic opportunities, investing in the youthful population, infrastructure development and national re-orientation formed the core of the budget.
He said the year’s appropriation sought to restore macroeconomic stability, enhance the business environment, foster inclusive growth, employment and poverty reduction and promote equitable income distribution and human capital development.
The president explained that: “We are targeting N34.82trn in revenue to fund the budget,” which projected a decline in inflation from 34.6 per cent then to 15 per cent in 2025, saying the budget would improve the exchange rate from approximately N1,700 to a dollar to N1,500, while the base crude oil production was pegged at 2.06 million barrels per day (mbpd).
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Also, in his New Year message, the president made more pledges. He noted that the cost of food and essential drugs remained a significant concern for many Nigerian households in 2024 and expressed his commitment “to intensifying efforts to lower these costs by boosting food production and promoting local manufacturing of essential drugs and other medical supplies.
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“In this new year, my administration will further consolidate and increase access to credit for individuals and critical sectors of the economy to boost national economic output. To achieve this, the federal government will establish the National Credit Guarantee Company to expand risk-sharing instruments for financial institutions and enterprises.
“I will unveil the National Values Charter, already approved by the Federal Executive Council, in the first quarter of 2025. I will launch an ambitious national orientation campaign that fosters patriotism and love for our country and inspires citizens to rally together.
“The Youth Confab will begin in the first quarter of 2025, a testament to our commitment to youth inclusiveness and investment as nation-builders. The Ministry of Youth will soon announce the modalities for selecting the conference’s representatives from our diverse, youthful population.”
Many promises unfulfilled
While the president’s pledges of improved exchange rate, establishment of the National Credit Guarantee Company and, to a great extent, reduction in inflation rate have been fulfilled, other promises for the year, including the 2.06 million barrels per day, remain unaccomplished.
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“We all know (most of) the goals have not been met. The insecurity continues and that is why we have the intervention of the United States. The issue of unemployment is still there. The 2025 budget has not been implemented, so the government can’t say they have achieved what they have not implemented,” a professor of economics at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, Sheriffdeen Tella, told Daily Trust.
The economist said the government had been able to achieve macroeconomic stability to the extent that the exchange rate was stabilising as the external reserve also rises. He, however, noted that the achievements were not attributable to the 2025 budget because it was not implemented.
“Poverty continues to rise. Only food prices have come down because we are in the harvesting period, along with the imported goods. The prices of transportation, accommodation and power are still rising,” Prof Tella added.
On the president’s promise to drive equitable income distribution, the don lamented that the gap between the rich and the poor continued to widen as “the poor are getting poorer.”
“They have not been able to achieve that. It is when they begin to implement tax laws where they say the poor people will pay less while the rich people will pay more that we can begin to talk about equitable income distribution.
“As regards the N34.82trn revenue target, the Minister of Finance has already told us there was a huge gap and the government could not meet its target. So, they didn’t achieve that, too. They almost achieved the targeted drop in inflation because it is getting below 20 per cent. In that regard, they have tried, but it was food inflation that actually brought it down. Other prices are still very high. This is the end of 2025 and the youth confab has not been held.”
Govt peddling lies, says analyst
A public affairs analyst, Comrade Adebayo Ogunleye, flayed the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government for failing to keep many of its promises, saying such a tradition started from the administration of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari and had continued under the present government.
Ogunleye said he was not surprised the Tinubu government had not fulfilled some of its promises for the year.
He said, “Whatever the plans they have for the Nigerian citizens, they always come around to peddle lies and at the end of the day, the administration will come and go. This is the same thing we are witnessing today under this present government. There was a disparity between the Minister of Finance and the chairman of FIRS on what was generated as revenue in 2025. This shows that within the government, there is civil argument and then incoherence of accountability to the Nigerian people.”
He noted that political leaders often got what was due to them but neglected the public, adding that the system was so corrupt that it undermined accountability, thereby impoverishing the masses.
He further said, “They always fail in whatever they promise the citizens, but when it comes to their own, the politicians, they will get at least 100 per cent of whatever they promise themselves. See the governors; their allowances are paid in full, as well as salaries. What Nigeria actually needs at this time is a system change. The system is actually bad. And we cannot continue with this kind of social system.”
He explained that there was a need for a change in orientation for citizens to hold the government to account.
“Look at senators earning so much money within a month, and when you compare their pay to that of a professor in the university setting, what the latter gets is ridiculous. We should not allow a system that allows such a thing to happen to continue,” he added.
What govt must do differently
Prof Tella observed that the federal government failed to meet its goals and promises because it was over-ambitious in an economic environment that did not support its goals. He said the government lacked a well-defined national and long-term plan that could provide a compass.
“They said we have a medium-term plan. The medium-term plan is supposed to derive from the long-term plan, which we don’t have. If you have a long-term plan, you will know where you are and what you want to achieve and won’t be over-ambitious.
“There is a need for the government to let us know the national plan. Although they talk about the 2050 plan, it is not official and made known. It was only mentioned in passing and you don’t have a national plan like that. It is supposed to be something everyone is aware of,” he said.
The economist cautioned the government to only set targets that were achievable given the available resources, noting that there should be budget restructuring.
“The government should not over-bloat its workforce. They spend a lot of money in paying salaries. The government should also think of reducing borrowing so that it will spend less on servicing debts.
“We also need to block revenue leakages. People steal money and you can’t account for many things. Sometimes, I say our problem is not revenue. It is the management of it. When you have people stealing the revenue, you start borrowing to bridge the gap,” he added.
