Renowned scholar and columnist, Farooq Kperogi, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s administration. He spoke about Nigeria’s failing governance structure, and the weakened state of opposition politics while calling for an urgent systemic overhaul ahead of the 2027 elections.
Speaking on this week’s edition of the Mic On Podcast with Seun Okinbaloye, Kperogi dismissed the current administration’s policy direction as a continuation of previous governments, adding that the Tinubu government merely reinforces the lack of a functioning social contract between government and citizens. “As far as I’m concerned, there hasn’t been any radical, substantive change in the direction of governance under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is the same template.”
Reflecting on Tinubu’s past record as governor of Lagos, Kperogi attributed the exaggerated praise often accorded to Lagos leadership to the dominance of the media in the state. “The biggest reason Lagos governors are often hyped is because the state is the media headquarters of Nigeria. I don’t think there is anything that Bola Tinubu did spectacularly that is historically altering.”
Addressing Nigeria’s broader leadership vacuum, Kperogi lamented the absence of a unifying figure with a clear national vision, concluding that President Tinubu does not fit that bill,
“What we lack in Nigeria is someone to bring us together. We lack the leadership to bring us into one united, purposeful whole. President Tinubu is not the kind of leader that Nigeria needs. I don’t think he has an independent mind. For him, this presidency is a journey of personal discovery. I don’t see him inspiring Nigerians.”
He also took issue with the economic policies and fiscal inconsistencies of the Tinubu-led government, especially in relation to its messaging on austerity and development, dismissing the administration’s slogan as hollow. “Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ is just empty sloganeering. His government says it is saving money, yet it is still borrowing more than it ever did from the World Bank. Governors now have more allocated funds, yet they are not building any infrastructure. Nothing is changing.”
Meanwhile, Kperogi paints a grim picture of the nation’s future under the current administration, citing deliberate neglect of the vulnerable.
“My pessimism is that this government has no obligation to help the poor, struggling, vulnerable population and is breaching its own part of the social contract. What I see at the end of the tunnel under President Bola Tinubu is not light; it is hell. It is an inferno.”
Turning to the opposition, the U.S.-based academic criticized the weakness and lack of ideological distinctiveness within Nigeria’s political parties. He also didn’t spare the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), describing it as a dying institution with no apparent revival strategy. “There is no real opposition in Nigeria. We have people who are in power and those who are not invited to partake in the perks of power. Even those in opposition to President Bola Tinubu are not distinguishable from him.”
In his view, meaningful change in Nigeria requires a total overhaul of the existing political system, which he believes is inherently incapable of driving development. He therefore emphasized the urgency of beginning a national conversation around systemic reforms to chart a new course for the country.
Watch full clip below.