As the year 2025 comes to a close, the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration has not kept many of its promises or reached its goals. People are calling on the government to go back and do what it promised to do.
During the year, President Tinubu made several promises about the economy, security, jobs, making money, lowering poverty, and getting young people involved. But a year later, observers claim that most of those pledges have not been kept, according to Daily Trust.
When the president gave the National Assembly the 2025 budget on December 18, 2024, he said that the main goals of the budget were to improve national security, create jobs, invest in young people, build infrastructure, and change the country’s direction.
He noted that the year’s budget aimed to restore macroeconomic stability, improve the business climate, encourage inclusive growth, create jobs, reduce poverty, and promote fair income distribution and human capital development.
The president said, “We are aiming for N34.82 trillion in revenue to pay for the budget.” This was based on the idea that inflation would drop from 34.6% at the time to 15% in 2025. The budget would also improve the exchange rate from about N1,700 to a dollar to N1,500, while the base crude oil production was set at 2.06 million barrels per day (mbpd).
The president also made more promises in his New Year’s message. He said that the high cost of food and essential medicines was still a big problem for many Nigerian families in 2024. He promised to “intensify efforts to lower these costs by boosting food production and promoting local manufacturing of essential drugs and other medical supplies.”
“In this new year, my administration will continue to strengthen and expand access to credit for people and important parts of the economy in order to raise the country’s economic output. To do this, the federal government will set up the National Credit Guarantee Company, which will give banks and businesses more ways to share risk.
In the first quarter of 2025, I will reveal the National Values Charter, which the Federal Executive Council has already approved. I will start a big national push to get people to love their country and be patriotic, and to get people to come together.
“The Youth Confab will start in the first quarter of 2025. This shows how committed we are to including young people and investing in them as nation-builders.” The Ministry of Youth will soon tell us how they will choose delegates from our diverse and young people to go to the conference.
A lot of promises that were not kept
The president’s promises of a better currency rate, the creation of the National Credit Guarantee Company, and a big drop in the inflation rate have all been kept. However, other promises for the year, including the 2.06 million barrels per day, have not been kept.
“We all know that most of the goals haven’t been met. The insecurity persists, necessitating the assistance of the United States. The problem of unemployment is still there. Sheriffdeen Tella, an economics professor at Olabisi Onabanjo University in Ogun State, told our reporter, “The government can’t say they have achieved what they haven’t implemented because the 2025 budget hasn’t been put into effect.”
The analyst claimed that the administration had been able to stabilize the economy to the point where the exchange rate was stabilizing and the foreign reserve was also rising.
He did say, though, that the successes could not be linked to the 2025 budget because it was never put into action.
“Poverty keeps getting worse. Only the prices of food and imported products have gone down because it is the time of year when crops are being harvested. Prof. Tella said, “The costs of transportation, housing, and electricity are still going up.”
The don said that the gap between the rich and the poor was getting worse even though the president promised to make sure that everyone had a fair share of income.
“They haven’t been able to do that. When they start to put tax policies into effect that say the poor will pay less and the rich will pay more, we can start to talk about fair income distribution.
The Minister of Finance has already told us that there was a big gap in the N34.82trn revenue target and that the government could not reach it. So, they didn’t get that done either. They almost reached their goal of lowering inflation because it is now below 20%. In that sense, they have tried, but it was food inflation that really pulled it down. Prices for other things are still very high. This is the end of 2025, and the youth conference hasn’t happened yet.
Analyst thinks the government is lying
Comrade Adebayo Ogunleye, a public analyst, told our correspondent that the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government had broken many of its promises. He said that this tradition started with the late former President Muhammadu Buhari and has continued under the current government.
Ogunleye said he wasn’t shocked that the Tinubu government hadn’t kept all of its pledges for the year.
He remarked, “No matter what plans they have for the people of Nigeria, they always come around to spread lies. In the end, the government will come and go.” We are seeing the same thing happen now with this government.
“There was a difference of opinion between the Minister of Finance and the chairman of FIRS about how much money was made in 2025.” This reveals that there is civil dispute and a lack of accountability to the Nigerian people within the government.
He said that political elites typically received what they deserved but ignored the people. He also said that the system was so corrupt that it made people less accountable, which made them poorer.
He went on to say, “They always break their promises to the people, but when it comes to their own promises, the politicians will always keep them.” Look at the governors; they get full pay for their work and their allowances. Nigeria really needs a change in its system right now. The system is really poor. We can’t keep going with this kind of social system.
He said that citizens have to modify their way of thinking in order to keep the government accountable.
“Look at how much money senators make in a month. When you compare that to what a professor makes at a university, it’s just crazy. We shouldn’t let a system that lets this happen keep on, he said.
What the government needs to do differently
Prof. Tella said that the federal government didn’t keep its promises or reach its goals because it was too ambitious in an economy that didn’t support its goals.
He claimed that the administration didn’t have a clear national and long-term plan that might serve as a guide.
“They told us we have a plan for the medium term.” We don’t have a long-term plan, so the medium-term plan is meant to come from it. Having a long-term plan can help you stay on track and not be too ambitious.
“The government needs to tell us what the national plan is.” They talk about the 2050 plan, but it is not official or known. You don’t have a national strategy like that, and it was simply mentioned in passing. He stated, “It should be something everyone knows about.”
The economist told the administration to only set goals that could be met with the resources they had, and that the budget needed to be changed.
“The government should not hire too many people. They spend a lot of money on salaries. The government should also look about borrowing less money so that it doesn’t have to pay as much interest on its obligations.
“We also need to stop money from leaking out.” People steal money, and there are a lot of things you can’t keep track of. Sometimes, I say that money isn’t the problem. It is the way it is run. He went on to say, “When people steal your money, you have to borrow to make up the difference.”
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