When slogans replace strategy: Why Nigeria needs policy thinkers

Across the world, political slogans have often carried weight because they were backed by a clear vision and well-defined policy. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal reshaped America’s economy in the 1930s through job creation, banking reform, and social security. John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier inspired bold investments, including the space race. Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika and Glasnost […]

Across the world, political slogans have often carried weight because they were backed by a clear vision and well-defined policy. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal reshaped America’s economy in the 1930s through job creation, banking reform, and social security. John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier inspired bold investments, including the space race. Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika and Glasnost transformed the Soviet Union. Barack Obama’s ‘Yes, We Can’ mobilised millions and left behind landmark reforms. In each case, the slogan was tied to a plan.

In Nigeria, however, slogans have become substitutes for strategy. Every four years, new phrases emerge while systemic problems persist. Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope” follows Buhari’s “Change” and “Next Level”. Yet electricity access, road quality, fuel supply, and food security show negligible progress. According to the World Bank’s April 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief, 75.5 per cent of rural Nigerians live in poverty compared to 41.3 per cent in urban areas. The gap is staggering and shows little improvement despite decades of promises.

Tinubu’s story with slogans deserves retelling. In Abeokuta in 2022, he declared “Emilokan”, which means “it is my turn”. At a Lagos business luncheon that December, he vowed subsidy removal, no matter the protests. On his first day in office, he delivered. Instead of prosperity, the policy triggered hardship. Transport fares skyrocketed, food prices spiralled, and the eventual minimum wage increment was swallowed by inflation. By August 2025, inflation stood at 20.12 per cent, with food inflation at 21.87 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Nigerians were thrown into shock therapy without anaesthesia.

The irony is sharp. Tinubu once joined Occupy Nigeria protests in 2012 against Jonathan’s attempt to remove the subsidy, calling it heartless. Eleven years later, the same act became his badge of courage. What changed was not policy logic but the occupant of Aso Rock. In Nigeria, convictions bend, words dissolve, principles collapse, and slogans endure.

This trend is not new. Gowon rallied the country with “Go on With One Nigeria,” which ended with a war won but unity left unbuilt. Shagari launched the “Green Revolution” to secure food, but corruption and oil dependence derailed it. Abacha unveiled “Vision 2010”, which never left the paper it was printed on. Yar’Adua came with a “Seven-Point Agenda” and later “Vision 2020”, aiming to place Nigeria among the world’s top 20 economies. By 2020, power supply was still erratic, and poverty deepened. Buhari’s Change and Next Level were equally shallow. The pattern is the same: catchy words, little follow-through.

Defenders of subsidy removal say corruption left no other choice. But why does government boldness always begin and end with the poor? They crush subsidies but will not reform the judiciary, trim the bloated civil service, or cut reckless convoys and foreign trips. Instead, they gift us the largest cabinet since 1999. The message is clear: sacrifice is for the powerless, comfort is for the powerful.

It does not have to be this way. Ghana and Indonesia paired subsidy reforms with social protections such as cash transfers, free healthcare, and public transport support. In Nigeria, leaders gamble with people’s lives. No plan, no safety nets, only promises of palliatives that rarely reach those in need. A serious government would have coupled subsidy removal with real investment in alternative energy, not tokenistic CNG rollouts. A handful of buses and conversion centres cannot transform a system that serves millions. Without nationwide refilling stations, affordability, and scale, the initiative is more photo-op than policy.

This is why Nigeria keeps stumbling. Rhetoric is mistaken for reform. Every administration brings new jingles while power grids, supply chains, and transport systems remain broken. True strategy requires phased implementation, monitoring, and adjustment. It would start with sacrifice at the top, not imposition on households. The latest NBS figures even show rural inflation at 20.28 per cent and urban inflation at 19.75 per cent, proving hardship cuts across the board but weighs heaviest on the poor.

Tinubu’s journey from protester to subsidy remover is a microcosm of Nigeria’s policy gap. From Gowon’s unity slogans, Shagari’s Green Revolution, Abacha’s Vision 2010, Yar’Adua’s agenda, Buhari’s Change, and now Tinubu’s Renewed Hope, Nigerians have been marched in circles by words while systems stay broken. Fuel prices, transport costs, and household consumption data underscore the consequences of empty slogans. Without evidence-based planning, measurable benchmarks, and coordination across sectors, reform remains performative rather than transformative.

Did the country truly change? Did we reach a positive next level? Has hope been renewed? Or are we recycling slogans while reality worsens? By 2027, another slogan will emerge. Unless policy thinking, systemic analysis, and evidence-driven governance guide reform, words will remain the only constant.

 

Abubakar Sadiq Adamu wrote from Abuja