May 11, 2026
Greetings, folks.
It pleases me, Harry Agina, to announce a good trend in reconciliation between an old friend of mine in Nigeria and me. The friend is Jide Iyiola Omidiran. As they say, it takes a “Big person” to know when to admit his or her errors in rancorous relationships and make amends in the interest of peace and reconciliation. That’s exactly what happened recently between my friend Jide and me. We had unnecessarily been exchanging unfriendly words on Facebook over the rulership (not leadership) of Nigerian rulers (not leaders), particularly about President Bola Tinubu’s rulership style and policies. What made it so foolish of both Jide and me was that we had been friends since the mid 1990s, long before Tinubu became president. Yet, we allowed Tinubu’s rulership of Nigeria to turn us into temporary enemies, which was ridiculous, considering the fact that none of us is benefiting anything from Tinubu and his government.
I went through all that to make the point on some senseless errors of some Nigerians fighting one another over the corrupt politicians who are destroying Nigeria. All Nigerians should always work together across sectional divides against the bad politicians and rulers of all parties, all religions, and all tribes who are destroying our country. Instead, too many Nigerians allow those sectional sentiments to pitch them against one another as enemies. Meanwhile, the corrupt politicians are gloating over their successes in weaponizing sectionalism to prevent Nigerians from massive revolution against their corrupt rulership. All that to give thumbs up to Jide Omidiran and me for our wisdom to quit our fight over President Tinubu’s rulership style. This does not mean that I have suddenly grown to love Tinubu’s style any better than before, no sir, no ma’am! Being a Social Critic, I still maintain that he is generally a bad ruler with much more bad policies and character than good. Our reconciliation also does not mean that Jide has suddenly abandoned his opinion that Tinubu is a great president. It only means that we have grown to disagreed about the president with maturity, devoid of unnecessary rancor. And, folks, Nigerians, that’s the right way to go, meeeeeeeeeeeeen!!!
Now, the following is a private comment by Jide on my Messenger wall in response to my latest No Bullshitting post on Facebook. My post is titled “The Grand Plot For One-Party Political System In Nigeria’s Demo-Crazy, Part 4.” It basically condemns the roles of President Tinubu and his conorts as the grand plotters. Jide disagrees with me in an intelligent and constructive debate. He did it on my Messenger, probably believing that I would have a problem with his disagreeing with me publicly on Facebook. But, of course not, I love people disagreeing with my views, as long as it is not abusive…a friendly debate. So, I suggested to Jide that we should take our debate public to Facebook for the benefit of others, and he concurred. So, here is Jide’s private Messenger comment, verbetum:
TINUBU IS QUIETLY DOING WHAT BUILT AMERICA AND CHINA. BUT TRIBALISM WON’T LET NIGERIANS SEE IT
Let me say this boldly:
Nigeria’s economy will not explode because of Twitter arguments… it will explode because of ROADS, RAIL AND LOGISTICS. That’s exactly what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is aggressively doing — and many Nigerians are too blinded by tribal politics to understand it. My assignment here is to expose you to what is really happening. We love to always see things from tribal lenses so much that we intentionally blind our own eyes from seeing truth in intelligent government actions .
1. America didn’t become rich by randomly doing things— it was INFRASTRUCTURE. In the 1800s, the U.S. economy transformed after the Transcontinental Railroad (1869) connected the East to the West. Cost of transporting goods dropped massively. Oil, agriculture, and manufacturing scaled across states. Trade between regions exploded. That’s how America became an economic giant.
2.China’s miracle was built on roads and rail. China didn’t “wish” itself into prosperity. From the 1990s:
Built 140,000+ km of expressways. Built the world’s largest high-speed rail network. Result?:
Lifted over 800 million people out of poverty. Turned villages into industrial hubs. Infrastructure = economic power. Simple.
3. Now look at what Tinubu is doing in Nigeria (THIS IS THE REAL GAME). This is not politics. This is ECONOMIC ENGINEERING. Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway (700km). Connecting Lagos, Ogun, Ondo , Delta , Rivers , Akwa Ibom and Cross River. Started 2024. Creates a coastal economic corridor for oil, ports, tourism, and trade. Sokoto–Badagry Super Highway (1,000km). Links North-West to South-West. Designed to cut logistics costs and boost trade, agriculture, and national integration. Abuja–Kaduna–Zaria–Kano Road (164km+). Critical northern economic artery revived with massive funding injections. Akwanga–Jos–Bauchi–Gombe–Maiduguri Corridor. Connecting North-Central to North-East for trade and security. Bodo–Bonny Road (Niger Delta access route). Unlocking oil, gas, and coastal commerce. Lekki Port / Dangote Refinery Evacuation Roads. Built to move products from Africa’s largest refinery (650,000 barrels/day) across Nigeria .
4. It’s not just roads — rail is coming with it. $2.99 BILLION approved for rail projects (Lagos, Kano, Kaduna). Light rail expansion in major cities
National rail corridors under study (Calabar–Maiduguri, etc.) .
5. The money being committed is MASSIVE. Over ₦7 TRILLION approved for road projects nationwide. Hundreds of projects under a national infrastructure drive. This is not “small government activity.” This is nation-building scale investment.
6. Why this matters (many Nigerians don’t understand this part). When you connect regions: Food from the North reaches the South cheaper. Ports in the South serve the entire country faster. Businesses expand across states
Investors come in. Jobs increase. That’s how economies grow — not by shouting on TV.
7. The uncomfortable truth Nigerians we nor wan hear be sey. If you remove tribal bias and look at DATA: Nigeria is being physically reconnected. Economic corridors are being built. Logistics cost (one of Nigeria’s biggest problems) is being attacked. But many people are still arguing like it’s a football match. Final truth: Visionary infrastructure always looks “crazy” at the beginning. They called early American rail expansion wasteful. They mocked China’s empty highways in the 90s. Today? Those countries dominate the global economy. Nigeria is at that same moment. The real question is not: “Do you like Tinubu?” The real question is: Do you understand what is being built? If Nigerians drop tribalism and start thinking economically, you’ll realize something shocking: This may be the most aggressive attempt to open up Nigeria’s economy in decades. Copied from Economic/ Political Forum Platform
MY RSPONSE TO JIDE’S PRIVATE COMMENT:
Greetings, my friend, Jide. I will respond to your comment in brief itemization:
(1)Your title says that “Tribalism won’t let Nigerians see what Tinubu is doing for Nigeria.” My dear, to me, that does not hold any water because a lot, I mean a whole lot of Tinubu’s Yoruba kin, including Elder Statesman Bode George, condemn Tinubu’s rulership just like people of other Nigerian tribes. At a point, even Wole Soyinka, who used to cover up for him, spoke out against his policies. So, can you say that Yoruba people are also tribalistic against Tinubu, their Yoruba kin?
(2)You talk about Tinubu following the paths of America and China in building Nigeria. I totally disagree, and I’ll tell you why: (A) America and China applied what is called stages of SHORT-TERM, MID-TERM, and LONG-TERM plans to ensure that their reforms did not hit their peoples very hard. In the short-term plan, the US and China put things in place to ensure that their peoples did not die off or get tortured while waiting for the long-term fruits to mature. Check America’s history of contemporary reforms of 1930s/1970s/2008, and you will see that Americans never suffered anywhere near as bad as Nigerians are suffering today. Why? Because there were robust financial systems in place to cushion the effects of the “RECESSIONS.”
(3)Also, American presidents would never remove fuel subsidy in the highly INSENSITIVE style that Tinubu did without first cushioning the effects on the people. That’s one of the things that Atiku and all the other oppositions and critics condemn Tinubu for. Bros eee, America would never remove subsidy anyway. Please note that EVERY civilized country in this world HAS SUBSIDIES OF VARIOUS FORMS FOR THE PEOPLE. Google this FACT, and you will see that American government currently HEAVILY subsidizes the fossil fuel industry (fuel, gas, coal). It has been on for over a hundred years, bro!!! Subsidy does exist in so many other sectors of the American system. Mind you, that’s a country where the citizens are earning far better than Nigerians in Nigeria; yet the country subsidizes costs for the poor people while Nigeria’s rulers subsidize for the criminal ruling class and the rich. A few hypocritical Nigerians praise Tinubu for removing the fuel subsidy, apparently unaware of the fact that there is no Western democracy today that does not have subsidies for their citizens in various ways.
(4)There is something called Social Security Benefits for Americans who are unable to survive for various reason, including when they don’t have jobs. Bros eee, I personally received Social Security Benefits as a youngster when I lost my job in my university days in Texas. It covered my monthly rent and feeding for three months until I got another job, bro! Mind you, I didn’t really lose the job, I quit because I needed the time to concentrate on my school project. Can Tinubu ever do anything similar to cushion the terrible effects of his senseless and insensitive fuel subsidy removal? Nope, instead, he releases huge funds to his criminal cronies in the name of PALLIATIVE that nobody in the poor class of Nigeria ever receives one dime of it. I’m gonno preempt your expected mention of Tinubu’s so-called Students Loan Project by asking you to mention just one Nigerian you know who has actually received that phantom loan. It has gone the same way of his so-called fuel subsidy removal palliatives, stolen by his cronies and cohorts. In my view, it takes a president who is very corrupt and not sensitive to his citizens’ suffering to allow crooks to steal what belongs to the poor masses!!! It is clear to many discerning Nigerians that Tinubu gave the so-called palliatives to state governors to buy them over to defect to APC and support his 2027 RE-SELECTION bid. My point here is the fact that the primary destroyer of Nigeria under Tinubu is his fuel subsidy removal, followed by his policy on foreign exchange, and then his maximum corruption behind it all!!!
(5)Like the legendary Robbin Hood, the China and America that you referred to in your comment “Steal from the rich to feed the poor.” In the matters of fuel subsidy and his so-called palliative, Tinubu stole from the poor to give to the rich.’ Before you say that Tinubu did not start the mess in Nigeria, I preempt you with two facts: (A) He exacerbated the mess from BAD to ATROCIOUSLY TERRIBLE! (B) He knew that Buhari had created the mess when he, during his 2023 electioneering period made his “Renewed Hope” promise to Nigerians. So, why did he “grab, snatch, and ran” with the president’s seat as he confessed, if he was not ready to change the criminal status quo of previous Nigerian governments. Instead, his renewed hope turned into RENEWD HOPELESSNESS for Nigerians, and only Renewed Hope for the criminals in his government.
(6)A Chinese or American president would fight the criminality that bedeviled Nigeria’s fuel subsidy and punish the criminals. He would NEVER consider the removal of the subsidy. Like I said, America is heavily subsidizing fuel today…A FACT!!! Criminals who would dare to steal fuel subsidy in America MUST go to prison, no fear, no favors!!! In China, such criminals do not just go to prison, THEY ARE HANGED TO DEATH, even for stealing ordinary one hundred dollars of public funds. I hope you know this FACT about China’s zero tolerance for criminality in public office. But Tinubu did not address the fuel subsidy corruption scam because FACTS still exist today that his family and cronies were involved in the scams.
(7)Next, I wanno respond to your mention of Tinubu’s infrastructures such as the highways he started. I take you back to your reference to reforms in China and America, which I already responded to. There are reasons why Americans and Chinese did not suffer anywhere near what Nigerians are going through now under Tinubu’s so-called reforms. A major reason is that American and Chinese leaders were not anywhere near the corruption in Tinubu’s reforms now. Unlike Tinubu, only necessary funds were spent by Chinese and Americans leaders in their reforms, and the rest applied to cushion the effects on the citizens. It seems to me that you are unaware of the huge magnitude of the self-serving corruption involved in Tinubu’s in those Tinubu’s projects you mentioned, bro!
(8)Until my next comment, I will end this with two among the many stories of some of the terrible ways that President Tinubu’s corruption is destroying Nigeria with foreigners and his family members. Mind you, I am not the author of the stories. One of my sample stories is in video form involving foreigners and Tinubu’s son, Seyi. The other is a link to a similar story. Both involve Tinubu’s Lebanese friend called Chagoury. The video comes after the link. Here is the link https: https://phoenix-browser.com/KgU1bKAsVZF
THE VIDEO ABOUT TINUBU’S CORRUPTION:
