Tinubu’s Foot Soldiers: Truth Must March Louder Than Lies

When the leaders are nowhere to be found, propaganda fills the gap and truth must whisper.

On the streets, villages, and markets, not on boardrooms, is where the battle for Nigeria’s story will be won or lost.

When duty retreats behind silence, propaganda fills the gap. In a country battered day after day by lies, half-truths, and planned provocation, the biggest failure of governing elites is not poor policy but non-presence. Not non-presence in the news or boardrooms, but on the streets, in the markets, and in people’s everyday language.

Nigeria has plenty of critics.

From Peter Obi to Atiku Abubakar, from Rabiu Kwankwaso to Boss Mustapha, to long-winded diasporians and Igbo irredentist, the air is charged with voices ready to reshape this government.

Their narratives ring truer because there is no counterbalance of presence. Where there should be refutation, silence prevails. Where the truth should be articulated, only assumptions abound.

This government is not lacking in results as they would want to portray it.

In the economy, Tinubu’s government transformed deficit into surplus. Nigeria achieved a $6.83 billion balance-of-payments surplus in 2024, a stunning reversal of decades of deficit, driven by bold reforms and strong export growth.

Theft from pipelines, once a paralyzing source of shame, has been virtually eliminated, allowing oil production to increase towards 2.5 million barrels a day with only two percent loss according to a major player UBA Chairman Tony Elumelu.

The NNPC, long hampered by inefficiency, has been reformed under successful private-sector management for accountability and efficiency.

The economic landscape speaks for itself. The deficit fell from 5.4 percent of GDP in 2023 to 3.0 percent in 2024. Revenue for the government rose to well over ₦6 trillion in a quarter due to tax reforms. External reserves rose from $4 billion to more than $42 billion. Debt servicing fell, giving the nation some respite as the country is finally breathing.

Livelihoods also have been affected. Student loans are, in NELFUND, a lifeline to half a million. The National Cash Transfer Programme benefits millions of poor families. Restored primary health centres brought services nearer to common Nigerians, with free caesarean deliveries given to mothers who had no such hope before.

Security dividends, as yet fragile, are real. Military campaigns have wiped out many militants and their leaders, dismantled illegal refineries, and rescued kidnap victims.

And in infrastructure, the much-hyped Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is no longer a dream but a project in progress, with 30 km already in motion, and in addition to trillions invested in road construction nationwide.

These are not distant numbers.

They are the tales Tinubu’s ground troops have to carry with them to the war.

Not in newsprint, not in the press.
But in flesh.

In villages. In town council areas..In markets.
To sit with the poor and declare: this is what your government does.

For facts, by themselves, are feeble. They may be bent out of shape to become lies by a sharp mouth, marauder. But presence anchors facts. People believe what they see, what they hear, what they can touch.

Unless ministers and appointees remain specters in Abuja, the agents of chaos will continue writing the story unopposed.

This is not a time for power without presence.

Public office is a vocation, not a franchise.

Abuja is not a constituency.

Let the North see you. Let the South hear you.

Let every community feel your work.

Propaganda cannot be answered by silence; it must be drowned in truth, in clarity, in work that can be seen and cannot be denied.

If you do not tell your own story, your enemies will tell one and sell it convincingly as truth.

In the era of distortion, silence is not neutrality, it is surrender.

Not talking is not humility, it is harm.

Àìlè sọ̀rọ̀ ni ìbẹ̀rẹ̀ eéribú!

Not doing is not wisdom, it is weakness.

The powers of darkness are not sleeping, and neither should the guardians of light.

The struggle is not merely against lies but against forgetfulness, against cynicism, against despair. The story of a nation must be told by its birthgivers, not by its critics.

For as Mahatma Gandhi warned:

“Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.”

And Yuval Noah Harari tells us:

“He who controls the narrative controls history.”

The truth should not be hidden behind reports or buried under bureaucracy.

It should be spoken freely, lived openly, and fought for fiercely. Only then will Nigeria move beyond photo ops to the substance of governance that lasts.

As Marcus Aurelius instructed, power does not reside in the din of external occurrences but in the resilience of the mind that will not submit.

Let those who have been called to Nigeria’s tomorrow recall: the enemy seeks to shatter your resolve, but only you can grant him permission.

The years 2027 to 2031 stand as a sacrosanct window for Tinubu’s economic rejuvenation and Nigeria’s greatness.

History will not forgive wasted chances.

Let us, therefore, work assiduously to secure it, to build upon the gains already laid, and to ensure that the promise of this administration becomes the future of our nation.

May Nigeria weather her many foes, may Asiwaju Bọla Ahmed Tinubu triumph!