Dr. Ross Erazelle Agazuma is a democracy advocate, political critic and member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He takes a look at President Bola Tinubu’s 65th Independence Day speech, describing it as a master class in propaganda and psychological warfare on the people. PATRICK OKOHUE spoke with him
How will you access President Bola Tinubu’s 65th independence anniversary broadcast; will you say it met your expectations?
President Tinubu’s 65th independence anniversary speech stands as one of the most calculated exercises in political deception and elite propaganda in Nigeria’s democratic history.
Rather than reflect the pain, hunger, insecurity and anger that now define daily life for millions of Nigerians, the speech repackaged half-truths, distorted data, historical sentimentality, and glaring omissions into a public relations performance that concealed more than it revealed.
From the onset, Tinubu invoked the memory of Nigeria’s founding fathers like Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, as a smokescreen to legitimise his administration’s policies. This appeal to historical patriotism is a deliberate framing technique used to shield himself from accountability. Those icons of Nigeria’s independence struggle did not endorse the capture of democracy by political cartels or the militarisation of dissent.
So, using their legacy as cover for today’s dysfunction is a betrayal of their vision. The President then quoted statistics like 23,000 secondary schools and 274 universities as evidence of ‘tremendous progress.’ Yet, these numbers conceal the collapse of quality and credibility in the education system.
Many schools are structurally unfit, teachers are underpaid or absent, and tertiary institutions are crippled by chronic strikes and unemployment of graduates. By presenting expansion as success while ignoring decay, Tinubu justifies budget padding and corruption masquerading as educational development.
But he spoke about the decay he met on ground and failure of past governments as part of the challenges he had to deal with. Don’t you agree with those sentiments?
Blaming his economic failures on past administrations, Tinubu claimed to have inherited a near-collapsed economy. This is both misleading and dishonest. As a chief architect and financial godfather of the APC since 2015, he helped shape the policies that ruined the naira, ballooned Nigeria’s debt, and shattered investor confidence. His economic reforms, particularly the subsidy removal and forex deregulation have not reduced poverty.
Instead, they have deepened it. His claim to have ‘ended the corrupt subsidy regime’ is outright false. Data from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd (NNPCL) spending patterns reveal that fuel subsidies are still being paid, just under different names and through opaque arrangements. Nigerians are now paying over N650 per litre for fuel, inflation is over 30 per cent, and transportation and food prices have doubled.
To pretend that subsidy is gone while spending continues off the books is economic deceit and a financial crime against the public. The speech’s proud mention of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and foreign reserves was a premature celebration of incomplete statistics. Per capita GDP remains below 2014 levels, and the naira has lost over 70 per cent of its value since Tinubu took office.
Youth unemployment and underemployment hover around 50 per cent, and food inflation has crossed 35 per cent. Quoting GDP and reserves without context is fiscal falsehood, an attempt to manufacture legitimacy through cherry-picked numbers while the economy collapses in real terms.
The speech repackaged halftruths, distorted data, historical sentimentality, and glaring omissions into a public relations performance that concealed more than it revealed
He also claimed that his tax reforms provide relief for low-income earners. But this is a dangerous lie. New cyber levies, Value Added Tax (VAT) hikes, and informal sector taxation are bleeding the poor. Meanwhile, lawmakers enjoy obscene salaries, and the presidency operates with an unaccountable slush fund. Taxing the poor more while preaching ‘relief’ is economic violence disguised as reform.
But his assertion that Nigeria has joined other nations that exports refined petroleum and aviation fuel cannot be faulted…
Tinubu’s assertion that Nigeria is now a net exporter of refined petroleum and aviation fuel is, perhaps, the boldest falsehood in the entire speech.
The Dangote Refinery is not yet fully operational and the NNPCL continues to import large volumes of refined petroleum products. No verifiable data supports the claim of net export status. This is not just misinformation, it is fraud by broadcast meant to deceive investors and pacify a weary public.
What about claims on victories over insecurity and the newly introduced student’s loan system?
The President’s remarks on security were equally misleading. He claimed victory against terrorism, but communities in Zamfara, Kaduna, Plateau, Benue and the South-East remain under siege. Kidnapping, banditry, and rural massacres continue unabated.
The biased criminalisation of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) while bandits are offered negotiations and amnesty is evidence of a politicised security strategy that undermines national unity.
By labeling dissenting regions as terrorists and appeasing northern militants, Tinubu’s government promotes ethnic injustice under the guise of national security. His list of youth empowerment programmes, NELFUND, YouthCred, Credicorp, iDICE, is a smokescreen. These schemes are primarily loanbased, inaccessible, bureaucratic, and serve as patronage channels for political loyalists. Most NYSC members and students cannot access the funds.
Presenting these as achievements is not empowerment, it is pre-election vote-buying disguised as reform, a morally bankrupt strategy to pacify discontent among the youth ahead of 2027. Most damning is what Tinubu failed to say. There was no mention of the N97 trillion debt crisis. No mention of continued subsidy payments.
No reference to judicial compromise or electoral fraud. No accountability for the worsening state of power supply or the deliberate collapse of local industries. No transparency on the bloated cost of governance. These omissions are not accidental, they are strategic. They reflect a government that survives on managed narratives, not truth. So, President Tinubu’s speech was not a celebration of Nigeria’s independence, it was an insult to it.
It was not a plan for national recovery, it was an attempt to normalise failure and launder corruption through rhetoric. It was not a declaration of unity, it was a propaganda script meant to silence critics and deceive citizens. The speech reflects a regime addicted to lying, allergic to accountability, and indifferent to the suffering of Nigerians.
The criminality lies not just in the policies but in the presentation. This is not governance, it is psychological warfare. Nigerians must not allow hope to be weaponised or truth to be buried beneath scripted applause. Real independence demands truth. Real leadership requires courage. And real democracy must expose deception, especially when it’s dressed as a national address.
