The Presidency has rejected a recent report by The Economist suggesting that many Nigerians are unhappy with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration ahead of the 2027 general election.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Sunday Dare, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, accused the international publication of presenting what he described as a distorted picture of Nigeria’s political and economic situation.
Dare said the report’s assessment “smells of opposition and is riddled with inconsistencies.”
The report, published on October 1 under the headline “Nigerians dislike their president, but may re-elect him anyway,” suggested that Tinubu could still secure another term despite what it described as growing public dissatisfaction.
It pointed to Nigeria’s security challenges, the impact of the administration’s economic reforms and the presence of strong political challengers as factors that could affect the 2027 election.
The publication also argued that Tinubu’s confidence about his political prospects should not necessarily be interpreted as evidence of widespread approval of his administration, but rather as a reflection of Nigeria’s electoral dynamics.
“Incumbents, with access to the ruling-party machinery and plentiful cash to dole out goodies, have tended to have an advantage in recent Nigerian elections,” the report stated.
Dare strongly disputed the assessment, accusing the publication and other foreign observers of relying on what he called oversimplified narratives about Nigeria.
“In their rush to paint a picture of impending doom, structural paralysis, and widespread citizen despair, these overseas observers routinely traffic in sensationalist half-truths,” he said.
He also rejected the idea that Nigerians broadly “hate” the President, arguing that such a description ignores the scale of the reforms undertaken since Tinubu assumed office in May 2023.
“They love to peddle the lazy, hollow fiction that ‘Nigerians hate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,’ packaging localised administrative growing pains into neat, uniform narratives of national rejection,” Dare said.
“This is not merely analytical laziness; it is an intellectual fraud.”
Dare argued that the Tinubu administration inherited a deeply weakened economy rather than a stable and fully functioning system.
He said the government had taken on what he described as the difficult task of addressing structural problems that had accumulated over several administrations.
“President Tinubu did not inherit a functioning, well-oiled state; he inherited a broken economic ecosystem on the precipice of total sovereign bankruptcy,” he said.
According to Dare, Nigeria’s long-running petrol subsidy system had placed significant pressure on government finances, while multiple foreign exchange regimes had contributed to distortions, corruption and difficulties for legitimate businesses.
He also pointed to the country’s debt-service burden, saying debt service-to-revenue ratios had reached close to 95 per cent, while years of limited investment had left important infrastructure, security systems, electricity networks and other national assets in poor condition.
The presidential aide said Tinubu chose to address these problems rather than postpone them further.
He highlighted the removal of the petrol subsidy at the beginning of the administration as one of the major decisions, arguing that it stopped what he described as a major drain on public resources and allowed government to redirect funds towards development and fiscal sustainability.
Dare also defended the administration’s education policies, particularly the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
He said the programme had enabled hundreds of thousands of students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds to pursue higher education without the burden of tuition payments.
“Walk into the lecture halls of federal and state universities, and you will find students and relieved parents whose educational dreams have been rescued by NELFUND,” he said.
He further pointed to wage reforms, increased financial independence for local governments and interventions targeted at farmers as examples of policies he said were benefiting Nigerians.
Dare argued that these groups could see the impact of the government’s reforms directly, despite the economic difficulties associated with implementing them.
“Speak with public servants whose take-home monthly pay has been elevated by progressive wage reforms. Speak with local government chairmen and community leaders who finally have the financial independence to execute localised projects. Engage farmers witnessing targeted interventions,” he said.
According to the presidential aide, the reforms should be viewed as difficult but necessary measures aimed at addressing long-standing problems in the Nigerian economy.
“These citizens recognise a leader doing the heavy, foundational lifting — someone cleaning up decades of accumulated governance debris. They know that the current reforms are the bitter medicine required to cure a chronic national ailment,” Dare said.
The Presidency’s response comes as political parties and potential contenders prepare for the 2027 election, with the performance and public reception of the Tinubu administration expected to remain central to political debate.
