Nigeria @65: All Hands-on Deck, But Whose Hands, Really?

By Oladoja M.O

As the country raises its flag for 65 years, the noble theme: “All Hands-on Deck for a Greater Nation,” filled the air. Yet, standing here, speaking from the streets, markets, classrooms, one can only wonder whose hands are being summoned this time around.

But definitely not that of the citizens.

Because for over two years now, Nigerians have basically been carrying what feels like the government’s load: paying more, waiting longer, hoping harder. The policies change; the burdens escalate. But what tangible benefits have trickled down?

In January 2025, after the NBS rebased the Consumer Price Index (CPI), inflation was reported at 24.48% year‐on‐year. That was a drop from the 34.80% in December 2024, but factual to say, the drop is merely statistical, not experiential. By June 2025 again, “inflation eased to 22.22% year‐on‐year,” was the headline picked to blow the governments’ vuvuzela on push for progress and development. An headline one would think will change everything, but in markets, the price of things didn’t feel much lighter.

What worsens the dissonance is that food inflation remains stubborn; staples are still being wrestled over. When a family of four has to spend a disproportionate share of income just to eat, calling for “all hands” looks less like leadership, more like demand without empathy. Electricity is still the luxury everyone talks about but few can rely on. Tariffs have been adjusted; subsidies cut by 35% for high‐usage customers, generating more revenue for government coffers. But the grid remains fragile. Dependencies on generators persist. Homes light up in flashes. Businesses struggle with inconsistent supply. For many, electricity remains not a service but a gamble.

According to World Bank data, nearly 129 million Nigerians now live below the national poverty line roughly 60% of the population. Yes, GDP growth shows signs of improvement, newspaper headlines tells that the macroeconomy is filled with all-green indicators, and external reserves have crossed $40+ billion and unarguably, those are important.

But what does growth mean when it doesn’t produce any succor to the actual general populace?

Assertively speaking, citizens aren’t asking the government to stop reforming, but to reform with foresight, with buffer. How can we continue to live with no shock-absorbing alternatives following the end of subsidy removal?? Upon devaluation of currency, limiting the citizens purchasing power, what has the government done to ensure that the citizens who have had not only their hands, but life on deck to feel it’s all worth it?? Greater Nation is not absolutely in a future for children unborn, it should be felt even by the present generation, except we just want to keep it as a slogan…

Let’s be honest, instances without numbers have shown that if there’s any hand missing on the deck, it’s the governments’ hand.

One big tragedy that foretells the missing hands of government on deck from my prism, is the failure to deliver true local government autonomy; a promise made to keep citizens’ hopes alive. Because right from my head, and I believe from many ordinary Nigerian’s understandings, autonomy was supposed to be a very significant answer to many of our deepest issues from insecurity to health, to food, to education. Because, all of these are of local realities, and a government that reflects the local truth can attend to them squarely.

But here we are, years after the promises, and the citizens have kept not just their hands on deck, but their lives. Literal lives lost to banditry, to hunger, to broken healthcare and failed infrastructure. Each passing day, Nigerians pay for governance failures with endurance that borders on sacrifice. And what do they get in return? A jamboree Supreme Court pronouncement, which to me, is just another ceremonial victory that moves nothing, changes nothing. Because autonomy on paper is not autonomy in practice.

When local governments cannot act without clearance from the state, when allocations meant for communities are trapped in bureaucracy, and when decisions about security, food, or health are made from offices that have never felt the dust of those communities, what we have is not federalism but governance by distance.

True autonomy cannot be a mere pronouncement. It must be an intentional structural sitting, legislated, protected, and practiced as a living principle of governance. It must be built into the constitution not as a ceremonial clause, but as a functioning system that allows every citizen to feel the government’s hand where their daily reality lies, and anything short of that is still performance not progress.

Again, if “All Hands Are to Be on Deck, Whose Hands??

Very instructively, government should ensure that reforms are linked to relief, inflation controlled meaningfully, through various buffer policies, strategic intervention in agriculture, storage, transport, and supply chain. Give LGA’s real revenue retention. Service delivery must be decentralized; local decisions must be taken without waiting for approval from a “senior brother” level of government. Cash transfers, health care subsidies, school feeding, especially for rural and poor urban areas must be sustained but with strict accountability in distribution.

Transparency and accountability must be strengthened. Budgeting and allocations must be visible, citizens must know what government is doing with their money.

Factually to say, in this journey to 65 years, no one deserves more credit for staying afloat than the citizen, because they are the hands that have been on deck all along. They are owed more than speeches. They deserve a government that shows hands that build, repair, deliver.

At 65, Nigeria deserves more than rhetorical sails. It deserves functional engines. All hands-on deck means nothing if some hands are already tied.

Happy Anniversary to us, yes. But let us not celebrate noise while hunger, darkness, poverty, and instability remain.