Peoples Redemption Party National Chairman Hakeem Baba-Ahmed called President Bola Tinubu’s government a failure in an Oct. 20 interview with Channels Television, intensifying scrutiny of economic hardship and insecurity in Nigeria.
Baba-Ahmed said Tinubu had inherited poverty, weak institutions and insecurity, but argued that the president should be judged by his government’s response. “He is a failure,” Baba-Ahmed said. His criticism comes as official economic gains have yet to relieve the pressure inflation places on households.
Nigeria’s real gross domestic product grew 4.2% in the first half of 2026, compared with 3.9% in the same period a year earlier, the World Bank said. The bank also said inflation remained elevated and continued to reduce household purchasing power. Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics reported a 14.63% headline inflation rate for September.
The World Bank said exchange-rate reforms, the removal of the petrol subsidy and stronger revenue administration helped lift gross federation revenues 69% in real terms from 2023 to 2025. State governments gained the most from the rise in revenue flows. The bank said governments need to spend the additional revenue more effectively to improve public services and living standards.
Insecurity has also interrupted education. UNICEF says more than 10 million children in Nigeria remain out of school. In the northwest, attacks on schools, including abductions, have disrupted education for hundreds of thousands of children. UNICEF does not attribute the entire nationwide out-of-school total to insecurity.
Tinubu defended his reforms in an Oct. 1 address, before Baba-Ahmed’s interview. He acknowledged that some families still struggled to pay for food, school fees and transport to work, and said lowering the cost of living was a priority. The address was a statement of his government’s position, rather than a response to Baba-Ahmed’s remarks.
