FORMER Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, has accused President Bola Tinubu of leading Nigeria into economic collapse and worsening insecurity.
Lawal, who spoke on Arise TV’s “The Morning Show” on Wednesday, May 21, said Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket had backfired, pushing the country into deeper hardship.
Lawal, who served under former President Muhammadu Buhari, has been a vocal Tinubu critic since the build-up to the 2023 elections.
He said on the TV show that those praising Tinubu’s government were dumb and blind to the realities the country faced.
“I think they (his supporters) have cotton wool in their ears or they are blind. Because insecurity has increased. It has grown exponentially since the arrival of Bola Tinubu’s government,” he said.
While The ICIR has yet to independently verify the claim of insecurity rising exponentially under Tinubu compared with his predecessor, Buhari, this organisation earlier in May 2025 reported that insecurity remained a widespread and persistent challenge across many parts of Nigeria.
According to data sourced from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) and analysed by The ICIR, 18,079 people have been killed, while 8,043 have been reported missing in Nigeria during Tinubu’s two years in office, between May 29, 2023, and May 2, 2025.
The former SGF linked Nigeria’s current socio-economic crises to what he called an ‘evil’ decision to impose a Muslim-Muslim ticket, which he insisted violated equity and justice.
According to him, the decision was a political misstep and a moral failure that alienated a large portion of the population.
He claimed that Tinubu’s recent presence at Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration mass in Rome proved his disdain for the Christian faith.
Tinubu attending the Pope’s inauguration “reinforces my earlier belief that the Muslim ticket is an insult to Christianity. Had there been a Christian as the vice president, it’s only expected that he would be the one to represent the government. But now in Nigeria, we have a so-called Muslim visiting the Pope, leading a delegation of Catholics, eminent Catholics, to the Vatican.
“So it proves the fact that a Muslim ticket is an unfair arrangement,” he said.
Speaking on the state of the nation’s economy under Tinubu, Lawal stated that the poverty level had multiplied exponentially.
“The poverty has multiplied exponentially. Even those who were doing well feel now threatened that they are next to poverty because the economy has collapsed. Completely collapsed.
“We are just surviving by the grace of God-on a hand-to-mouth basis. They are borrowing money that doesn’t arrive in Nigeria before it is spent,” he said.
He stressed that the administration’s strength could not be judged by its appraisal by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, or “some northern politicians,” whom he said did not have good intentions for the country.
Speaking further on his relationship with Tinubu, Lawal said that he severed ties with Tinubu and the ruling APC after the Muslim-Muslim ticket was adopted during the 2023 elections.
He revealed that he and other political actors, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, were in talks to form a credible opposition ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The ICIR reports that since the commencement of Tinubu’s administration, Nigeria has been battling high inflation, which rose for the third straight month in November 2024, soaring to a 34.80 per cent in December 2024, up from 34.6 per cent.
Although, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently reported that Nigeria’s inflation eased to 23.71 per cent in April, 2025, from 24.23 per cent in March, this does not necessarily mean that the prices of commodities have dropped sharply as a recent interview published by The ICIR spotlighted that the cost of living remained high.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M