By OLABODE OPESEITAN
Tinubu’s Nigeria: Where the familiar feel seen and the forgotten find footing
What if leadership wasn’t about choosing sides—but about enlarging the table?
What if the true measure of power was not how loudly the majority roared, but how gently the minority was heard?
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu didn’t inherit a banquet. He met a cupcake economy: oil production averaging just 1 million barrels per day, foreign reserves netted down to $4 billion, and GDP growth crawling at 2.8%. The oven was small. The ingredients were scarce. But he didn’t complain—he rolled up his sleeves.
Through financial engineering and a triage of urgency and impact, Tinubu began building a bigger oven. Not just to feed the elite, but to bake a jumbo cake that could nourish every Nigerian—north, south, majority, minority.
Appointments That Break the Mold
In a country where tribal permutations often dictate plum positions, Tinubu has shown a masterclass in inclusive statecraft.
- Chief of Army Staff: Major General Waidi Shaibu. Appointed from a minority tribe in Kogi State—a rare move in a role historically dominated by majority ethnic groups.
- INEC Chairman: Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN), from Ayetoro Gbede in Ijumu LGA, Kogi State—a minority region often sidelined in national power equations—was unanimously approved by the National Council of State on October 10, 2025.
- NNPC GCEO: Engineer Bayo Ojulari, from Kwara State, replaced Mele Kyari in April 2025, signaling a shift toward regional balance and technical merit.
- Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Science Laboratory Technology (NISLT): Donatus Enyinnah Nwankpa, from the Ngwa region of Abia State—an influential Igbo subgroup with limited historical access to federal leadership roles—was appointed in 2025 to lead Nigeria’s scientific standards agency. His elevation reflects President Tinubu’s commitment to professional merit and regional balance, especially in sectors that shape Nigeria’s innovation and research agenda.
These are not symbolic gestures. They are strategic placements that give the minority tribes not just visibility, but voice.
Legacy Projects That Touch the Margins
The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, a 700-kilometer marvel, is more than concrete and ambition. It’s a metaphor for inclusion.
- States Covered: Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River.
- Some of the Minority Communities Touched:
– Odioma (Bayelsa): A fishing village long cut off from federal infrastructure.
– Ibeno (Akwa Ibom): Known for oil spills and neglect, now poised to become a tourism and logistics hub.
These communities, once invisible on federal maps, now find themselves on the path of progress.
Border Development: From Periphery to Priority
The Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA), under Tinubu’s administration, has accelerated infrastructure in long-neglected frontier towns. The BCDA targets developmental projects in 250 border communities in 2025 across 21 states:
- Ilela, Sokoto: Once a smuggling outpost, now a legitimate trade gateway with electrification, water projects, and road upgrades.
- Maigatari, Jigawa: A new Free Trade Zone is attracting investors, fulfilling BCDA’s promise of economic inclusion.
- Power partnerships with the Ministry of Power are energizing dozens of border communities, turning isolation into opportunity.
Across different communities, these projects are offering the people unimaginable lifelines.
Baking the Bigger Cake
Today, Nigeria’s oil production averages 1.8 million barrels per day. GDP growth has surged to 4.23%. Foreign reserves have rebounded to $43.4 billion in mid October—the highest in six years. The oven is bigger. The cake is rising.
Final Flourish: A President Who Listens in Stereo
Tinubu is not perfect. And no human system is. But what’s striking is his determination to make the real difference—to return Nigeria to the path of greatness and rectitude. One step at a time, he’s getting it right; and where he got it wrong, he’s willing to recalibrate.
He’s pampering the majority with deserved representation, while dignifying the minority with merited inclusion. He’s not just managing Nigeria’s complex multiethnic society—he’s mastering it.
Nigeria is a nation long fractured by tribal permutations and regional neglect. Tinubu is now sketching a new map—one where dignity is not rationed, and belonging is not bartered. He is not just baking a bigger cake. He is ensuring every Nigerian, from creek to capital, gets a taste of nationhood.
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