TINUBU HAS FAILED, AND ATIKU WILL EXCEL.

The above caption appears subjective, especially in the light of promoting one person and condemning the other.

Yes, it is. That is because objectivity is achieved from every subjective experience. What do I mean? After a very careful objective analysis of the performance of Bola Tinubu as Nigerian president, the only conclusion I can reach is that he has failed; in economy, in infrastructure, even in the provision of security and national cohesion. However subjective this conclusion may appear, it is borne out of an objective assessment of the expectations and the performance of the administration.

I had cause to travel by road from Lagos to Abuja recently. It was tales of woes all through. Save for the road from Lagos to Ibadan. It was potholes and detours right from Ibadan through Ife road. From Ife to Ilesha was worse, and tales abounded of armed robbery attacks.

Veering off through Igbara, we went through Ikere Ekiti through Arigidi and Akungba in Ondo State and through Obajana in Kogi. I challenge the federal government to show a good patch along this strip.

This is not an isolated case of government failure with road infrastructure. Ikorodu-Ijebu Ode road is a death trap, no Federal road, as I speak, in Ekiti State, is motorable. Sagamu-Ijebu Ode road, to or fro, is a huge waste of economic time.

Aside from Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Madalla-Zuba-Kaduna and Lafia-Akwanga-Makurdi, and Lotto-Owetto roads, all Federal roads in Nigeria are in a terrible state. Sango to Abeokuta is terribly bad. Sagamu to Ajebande is a death trap. A trip by road on that axis, and you must visit the mechanic the next day. Ibadan to Ife is a death trap. One can still manage Ilesha to Futa Junction, but from Futa Junction to Owo Junction, to Ifon and Benin City is a death trap. Benin to Asaba is unpassable, and Benin to Warri is equally unpassable. The East West Road to Port Harcourt is unpassable. The only motorable roads in the East are just two; Awka to 9th Mile and the newly rehabilitated stretch between Port Harcourt and Lokpanta in Abia State.

In its more than two years in office, the Tinubu administration has continually borrowed from foreign nations and bodies. What this is deployed to remains a mirage. We keep hearing of phantom projects like the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway but I ask: "Rather than commit huge resources to projects with no direct and immediate benefits to the citizens, would it not rather make more sense to deploy such funds to the rehabilitation of existing and viable roads This would not just reduce the hardship on our roads, it would also greatly reduce attendant negatives like accidents, armed robberies, and kidnappings.

The Tinubu administration, following in the footsteps of the administration before it, declared recently that it had spent so much as giveaways to the poor within the society. This is unverifiable, wasteful, and criminal.

To cover its ineptitude, the APC leadership has reduced us to beggars. As is characteristic of Tinubu, from when he was Lagos governor, he appropriates, criminally, the commonwealth and shares crumbs to a select few.

No country thrives from handouts but from the creation of wealth through job creation, employment, and conducive policies enabling growth.

Palliatives are meant to cushion effects, and not sole sources of livelihood. As against the promise to create employment, more people are being plunged into unemployment. Companies, especially manufacturing, are folding up, daily, because of government policies that make it impossible for companies to thrive.

The state of insecurity under the Tinubu-led administration makes the same under Buhari look like child's play. When we remember that insecurity was weaponised to oust Jonathan, we can only conclude that Tinubu is nothing but demonic. Sadly, rather than empathise with the victims of insecurity across the country, he is busy with playing politics and increasing the number of insincere endorsements of his candidacy across the country.

Benue is insecure, and lately, Kwara has become a death zone. People are vacating their ancestral homes in droves in the Northeast, Northwest, and North Central. Yet the government is preoccupied with playing politics.

Unfortunately, all Tinubu has recorded in his first two years of leadership is failure. It therefore beggars understanding Tinubu's preoccupation with reelection in 2027. It smacks of insensitivity to be aspiring for another term when you have nothing positive to show as work done.

To add insult to injury, for us, Tinubu keeps slamming us with taxes and levies from all directions. From bank charges to direct and indirect taxation on all products. Services are not left out. Costs of driver's license have gone up, and, very recently, obtaining international passports became more expensive. These are excruciating.

Tariffs have gone up, and commodity prices have increased. But this government and its bootlickers will come back to tell us it is getting better. Getting better, how? Where did they meet the prices and where are the prices, now?

As if that is not enough, the only criteria, under this administration, to occupy positions are where you are from. We thus have a lopsided distribution of offices with one region benefitting at the detriment of others. Rather than use merit as a yardstick to appoint people to offices, the song is now Emilokan, or do I say Awalokan. Never before has the cohesion of the tribal entities that constitute the Nigerian nation been this fractured. So sad.

I have only one conclusion. Tinubu has failed. And, woefully, too.

Governance should not be about entitlement but rather about track record and precedence. Seeming success at the state level (when he was Lagos governor) does not translate to capability at the Federal. Cognisance should be given to track records, both in public and private ventures.

Since the inception of the Nigerian democratic experiment, from 1999, the best we have experienced has been Obasanjo/Atiku administration between 1999 and 2007. And, it is a known fact that the engine room of that administration was Atiku Abubakar. He was the one who assembled the sterling team of achievers and superintended over them. The results were not only obvious, they subsist to date. The banking industry and even the telecoms sector attest to this.

Moreover, the success story of Atiku Abubakar precedes his foray into politics. He has always been a successful businessman and a large employer of labour.

His interests cover education, agriculture, and even logistics, to mention just a few.

Atiku Abubakar remains the most detribalised Nigerian politician, having built bridges across regional blocs. His retinue of aides and associates cut across tribal divides.

Aspiring, relentlessly, to attain the Nigerian presidency is his earnest mission to bring his capacity to bear to evolve a Nigeria that works; prosperous and of our dreams.

It is achievable.

-Babajide Macauley,

Secretary,

Creative and Design Committee,

The Narrative Force.

05102025.