Tinubu has done what no president since 1999 achieved on federalism – Adeyeye

The Director of Electioneering Planning of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Campaign Council in the South-West, Prof. Olusola Adeyeye, has said President Bola Tinubu has done what no Nigerian president has achieved since 1999 by laying the foundation for a genuine federal system.

Adeyeye made the remarks in an interview published by The Punch on Sunday, noting that Tinubu had increased the share of revenue retained by state governments, thereby improving their economic viability.

According to him, Tinubu has also initiated the process of restoring state police, an authority that existed at independence but was subsequently abolished by successive military administrations.

“Tinubu began the process of giving the states the right to police authority, which we had at independence, but which the military government of the past took away. If he does nothing else but restore authentic federalism to Nigeria, in my opinion, he will go down in history as a very great and consequential president,” Adeyeye said.

Commenting on public concerns over inflation and the declining purchasing power of Nigerians, the APC chieftain argued that the country’s economic challenges predated the Tinubu administration.

He said an examination of the Federal Government’s budgets from 1999 to date, measured against the country’s population, would show that Nigeria had never allocated the equivalent of one dollar per person daily for government expenditure.

“People talk about purchasing power. When you look at Nigeria’s budget from 1999 to date and divide it by the population of the country, you will discover that there has not been any year since 1999 that the Federal Government allocated one dollar to spend on every Nigerian per day. We have always been very, very poor. Check the 2025 budget, you will see that the amount of money the Federal Government has to spend on every Nigerian in a year is less than $150. So, you are talking about, at best, 45 cents for a Nigerian per day,” he said.

“The budget of Norway, a country like Ondo or Oyo State in population size, is on a geometric scale in comparison with that of Nigeria. Norway has about $32,000 to spend for every Norwegian this year. In Nigeria, whether it is Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar or Peter Obi, the government has less than $200 to spend on a Nigerian in a year. I think maybe it was either Yar’Adua or Jonathan under whose administration the figure came close to $268.

“The truth is that we are pathetically poor and we need to find a way to face that reality. We need to find a way to grow our economy. We need to find a way to cut our coat not according to our size but the fabric we have in hand,” he added.