By Kehinde Olaosebikan

Political independence gave Nigeria a flag in 1960. Now, economic independence is giving Nigeria a future. That second independence is underway, and it began on May 29, 2023.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu did what previous Nigerian leaders over the decades avoided. He subtracted Nigeria’s two most expensive lies from the national equation: that petrol could be cheap at the pump head while refineries were dead; and that the naira could have ten prices and still be called money.

In keeping to his word, his bond, he removed the petrol subsidy in his first hour. He unified the exchange rate within his first month. Those were not economic policies. They were acts of statecraft. They ended the era when Abuja governed by distributing scarcity. They began the era where Abuja governs by creating value.

The price of rescue
Every reform that saves a nation first, tendentiously wounds a people. Subsidy removal tripled transport fares overnight. FX unification pushed inflation past 34 per cent. Food prices hit hard. Traders shut stalls. Workers trekked kilometres. The anger was real. The headlines were brutal.

Now, three years on, those wounds are healing and individuals physical and economic muscles are strengthening and adjusting.

There are visible gains in the economy. Naira has been stabilised. Our GDP figures have shown that the non-oil revenue has grown for six straight quarters. The four Tax Reform Bills Tinubu signed on June 26, 2025, crushed multiple taxation. States now sit peacefully with the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) in the Joint Revenue Board instead of fighting it. The Presidential CNG Initiative has put over 100,000 converted vehicles on the road. Gas flaring is down by 15 per cent. The AKK pipeline is at 90 per cent completion. By next month, July, its first phase, the Ajaokuta-Gwagwalada segment will start delivering gas to the Federal Capital Territory. These are big leaps in our development.
The pain was the price. The gain is the country.

I Saw This Play Before
“Oro Ahmed yi nikan na ni o un ba mi leru”— It is only the issue of Ahmed that is giving me worries.

I was there in 2003 when the late Governor Lam Adesina said it. As his Chief Press Secretary, I watched him lovingly expressed the worry. Five AD governors in the South West fell for President Obasanjo’s deceit: support my second term, and I will be “soft” on your re-elections. Bisi Akande, Segun Osoba, Adebayo Adefarati, Niyi Adebayo, Lam himself — all obeyed the dictates and danced to the falsehearted music.

Tinubu refused. He stood alone in Lagos while his colleagues hesitated. He became the only AD governor left standing.

The play repeated in 2023, only that the script was harsher. They laid landmines on his path to Aso Rock. The Naira was redesigned to drain cash from the streets during campaigns. Money vanished. ATMs were empty. The APC National Chairman then openly dismissed his aspiration. The establishment set stumbling blocks at every turn and bet he would fall.

He didn’t. On his 70th birthday in March 2022, I wrote that despite all these challenges, Tinubu would celebrate his 71st birthday as the president-elect of Nigeria. It came to pass.

That is the political DNA now running the economy: the rare, uncanny ability to win when the entire system is betting against him.

From isolation to alignment
In 2003, his fellow South-West governors left him to his strategy. In 2023, the party structure tried to stop him.

Today, in 2026, preparatory to 2027, providing exceptionally audacious, strong, inclusive and profound leadership as the sitting president of Nigeria, the picture is different. Almost all the state governors and critical stakeholders are with him. Not out of fear. Out of results. They felt the pain of reform. Now, they are sharing the fruits.

States are buoyant today because Tinubu is devolving more funds than any president since 1999. From less than N1 trillion, FAAC now shares well over N2 trillion monthly to states and local governments. He removed subsidy and unified FX — and instead of hoarding the windfall in Abuja, he pushed it down. That is fiscal federalism by action, not by press statement. Governors who once begged for bailouts are now expediently funding projects from their own allocations.

They are not fighting him. They are following him — because they see Nigeria winning.

That is why I wrote some months ago that, “2027: Nigerians will yearn for Tinubu to continue in office.’’ It was not a prophecy. It was pattern recognition. When reforms bite, people protest. When reforms yield, people remember.

The farmer buying cheaper fertiliser remembers. The exporter making international transactions in local currency remembers. The governor who now gets N40 billion where he once got N15 billion remembers.
The doctrine of Renewed Hope, in motion

Every transformative leader leaves behind a doctrine. Tinubu’s ‘Doctrine of Renewed Hope’ is not a slogan. It is already policy, already law, already executing.

Revenue before rhetoric. The new tax framework is real. The 18 per cent tax-to-GDP target is no longer academic theory.

Real-world diversification of resources: Nigeria is recording the biggest gain ever in solid minerals development with the massive influx of over $3 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) for local minerals processing and a historic six-fold surge in revenues.

Production Before Consumption. Gas is becoming power, fertiliser, and steel. CNG buses run from Lagos to Kano. Food is starting to chase people, not the other way round.

Trade Before Aid. AfCFTA protocols and PAPSS are live. African nations are settling trade in their own currencies. Nigeria is moving from aid recipient to trade underwriter.

BRICS did not invite Nigeria as a debtor. Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are not asking “Where is Nigeria?” anymore. They are asking “How is Nigeria doing it?”

The legacy being built
History does not remember how many bills a president signed. It remembers which systems he made irreversible. Tinubu is strengthening institutions, making the new systems irreversible.

Awolowo is remembered for classrooms. Ahmadu Bello for agriculture. Nnamdi Azikiwe for industry.

Tinubu is being remembered for giving Nigeria an economy that does not apologise.

1960 gave us Independence from Britain. 2023-2031 is giving us Independence from poverty. That is the second Independence. That is the doctrine. That is the work already in motion.

In 2003, he was left to stand alone. In 2023, they put landmines on his path, and he still won. In 2027, the governors, the stakeholders, the farmers, the exporters — they are walking with him. Because Nigeria is winning. Tinubu is successfully invigorating Nigeria and expanding Africa’s economic fortunes.

Beyond 2027, the entire continent is watching. And this time, it is not waiting to be saved. It is waiting to be led.

Olaosebikan was Chief Press Secretary to the late Governor Lam Adesina of Oyo State, 1999-2003.