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BY BOLAJI AFOLABI

Yearly, the months of July and August are special in the calendar of educational institutions, particularly primary and secondary schools. All the days, excluding Sundays it is common to see parents, patrons, guardians, and friends coalesce at different schools celebrating the academic transitions of their children, wards, and loved ones. A few weeks back, the writer,  was in a similar situation – attended the graduation ceremony of the son of a family friend. The event was colourful and classy, as the school and students showcased high-quality performances; from musical rendition to drama presentations, spoken words, and more. Trust Nigerians, as the main event ended, the celebrations moved to the field and other available spaces within the environment, as people settled under carefully arranged canopies. Guests, family members, and many others savoured different eye-popping, and nose-enticing meals; iced-cold beverages and table water; not forgetting give-aways.

Typical of such gatherings, amid the feasting there were handshakes, back-slaps, and  chit-chats across every canopy. Discussions, at the initial stage were oscillated from sports to politics and governance. Later, “participants” pumped up the value and volume by shifting the topic to Tinubu’s administration – emphasis on the performances of his appointees. The “jury” unanimously agreed that Nyesom Wike, Dave Umahi, Festus Keyamo, Jumoke Oduwole and a few others were the star-performers among the Ministers – with the FCT boss notches ahead. The rankings of Heads of Agencies were interesting and revealing, with the National Pension Commission, (PENCOM), and Rural Electrification Agency, (REA) getting thumbs-up.  Surprisingly, an elderly man disagreed, insisting that the list will not be correct and complete without the Bureau of Public Procurement, (BPP).

While a few people were taken aback by his insistence, some others restrained from openly questioning his judgement – out of respect. Suddenly, three men, took turns corroborating the position of the senior citizen. For almost an hour, they successfully convinced many people about the achievements of the nation’s procurement regulatory agency. One of “our lecturers” declared, “unknown to people, the BPP is doing so much, and positively impacting government expenditure on public procurement by ensuring that the country gets the right value for money spent on every project.” A retired federal bureaucrat confessed that, “though I don’t agree with some policies of the Tinubu administration, but it is doing much more in terms of public expenditure through the BPP, which in the past two years has recorded tremendous achievements in diverse ways.” A middle-aged woman, working in a federal agency but preferred anonymity was emphatic, “the Bureau, through innovative and ingenious approaches has contributed hugely to President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.”

With special interests in public policy, corporate governance, and leadership, the writer, enamoured by the persuasive and matter-of-fact deliveries of the previous speakers was somewhat shocked by the concluding parts of the female “lecturer.” Somehow, one concluded that, though many people were convinced about the laudable contributions of the BPP to public procurement and government expenditure, its impact on the present administration’s agenda demands further scrutiny. For weeks, the writer embarked on discreet inquisition of the Bureau’s input to government reforms as it relates to public procurement and expenditure on critical sectors. The robust exercise included the verification of the Bureau’s relevance to the “Renewed Hope Agenda” of President Bola Tinubu.

From available records, the “Renewed Hope Agenda” ((RHA) can be categorized into eight (8) areas –  Economic Growth; Infrastructure; Security; Rule of Law/Anti-Corruption; Education; Healthcare; Food Security; and Poverty Eradication. No doubt, these are tangent to the well-being of the people by providing the pathway for national development, and ensuring meaningful transformation. Further analysis reveals that the RHA encompasses critical sectors such as roads and other infrastructures; education; healthcare; water; power; environment; and economy. These are domiciled in some MDAs including Works & Housing; Power; Health & Humanitarian Services; Education; FCTA; Aviation & Aerospace Development.

Findings and reports reveal that the BPP has been contributing largely to purpose-driven and results-yielding public expenditure. More importantly, it has,  through inclusive procurement processes directly supported the RHA in key areas. The Bureau, under the leadership of Dr. Adebowale Adedokun has aligned and delivered through Institutional Strengthening and Anti-Corruption – which is core to Renewed Hope, “RH” governance reforms. With the re-branding of its price intelligence  and due process unit, over-invoicing is not only being eliminated but MDAs get value for monies expended on public procurements – saving public funds for other RH projects. Also, the External Cooperation Unit, (ECU) which was  created to tap global best practices and resources has impacted positively in reducing cases of price variations – hitherto avenue for financial leakages. Similarly, the BPP is deepening regulatory enforcement as MDAs are aligning with procurement standards and ethics which, in the long run will drive performances, service delivery, and good governance.

Deploying effective and efficient mechanisms on project delivery oversight, the BPP ensures that infrastructural projects under the RHA are not inflated, but also meet quality specifications. These are evidenced in critical projects; completed or on-going in Ministries of Works, FCT, Aviation & Aerospace Development, Health, Water Resources, and a few others. Similarly, the Bureau’s monitoring and evaluation framework tracks procurement processes and outcomes, and ensures that public projects under the RHA are delivered on time and complies with budgetary directives. As a major stakeholder in the actualization of the RHA, the Bureau has emplaced procurement processes for supporting MSMEs. Through this initiative – which aligns with the RHAs private sector led approach to economic growth – equitable opportunities are given to women, youths, and people living with disabilities to access and benefit from public procurement expenditures.

The Bureau’s commitment to human capital development as a cornerstone for sustainable national growth and development; which aligns with the RHA has contributed to capacity building and job creation. Through its partnership with the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (United Kingdom), over 8,000 procurement officers are being trained locally; professionalizing the profession, and creating a globally competitive workforce. Instructively, there are reports that some Nigerians, who benefitted from the BPP/CIPS (UK) training and certification are now employed by reputable global organizations and multinational bodies. Further to Adedokun’s belief that “collaboration in capacity building can be deployed towards ensuring that different strata of the society are prepared for economic growth,” the BPP in partnership with local and foreign organizations have been conducting procurement-linked empowerment programmes for women; impact on the informal sector has been encouraging.

True, the contributions of the BPP to the RHA, and more importantly,  economic growth and development cannot be painstakingly discussed in one article. The audacious statement of the middle-aged woman about the BPP needs no disapproval – they are right, true, and spot-on. The Bureau’s laudable contributions in ensuring that public spending on projects are cleaner, cheaper, more inclusive, more professional, and more valuable deserves commendations. That the landmarks were achieved by the Bureau’s present leadership, in about three years is a glowing testament to the capacity, vision, focus, resilience, and unity of purpose of the Director-General, the management staff, and other staff members. Interestingly, Adedokun, at every occasion always confess that, “the fatherly support, belief, and wonderful political will from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made it possible for us (BPP) to discharge our (BPP) responsibilities. He deserves all the credit and honour for whatever we (BPP) are doing.”

* BOLAJI AFOLABI, a Development Communications specialist was with the Office of Public Affairs, The Presidency, Abuja.

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In an era defined by geopolitical competition, trade wars, sanctions regimes, and shifting alliances, one phrase has migrated from European policy papers to the heart of African diplomacy: “Strategic Autonomy”.

For Nigeria, this is not a new experiment in isolation, nor is it a nostalgic return to Cold War non-alignment. As I outlined in a recent address from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja, it is something far more direct and more urgent.

Strategic autonomy is alignment to Nigerian national interest. Once you are clear in what constitutes your national interest, you align with those interests regardless of which party is at the receiving end. That is the foundation. I am aware of scholarly publications that was recently put together by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs on the subject.

While the Ministry prepares the full concept note charting new fronts in a multi polar world, let me share the preliminary framework guiding Nigeria’s foreign policy under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Our goal is simple: to ensure that Nigeria, and by extension Africa, is not an object of geopolitics, but a subject that defines its own future.

What Strategic Autonomy means for Nigeria and Africa
Strategic autonomy is often misunderstood as withdrawal. It is the opposite. It is engagement on our terms. Today, Nigerian Foreign Policy has shifted. Gone is the era of reactive alignment. The Tinubu 4Ds agenda is anchored on strategies that are clearly designed to bring succor to Nigerians. The deliberate pursuit of Nigeria’s national interest across economic, security, technological, and diplomatic domains, without being locked into any single bloc. Nigeria’s strategic autonomy rests on 5 pillars in a world of continuous alignment. Together, they form the blueprint for how Nigeria engages a world that is no longer unipolar, but contested, transactional, and opportunity-rich.

NATIONAL INTEREST, NIGERIA FIRST 
Alignment to Nigerian national interest is the guiding rule. For Nigeria, Foreign Policy begins at home. Every treaty, partnership, and diplomatic gesture is measured against one question: does it deliver jobs, infrastructure, security, defence and dignity for Nigerians?

This principle was tested in the enforcement of the One China Policy. When diplomatic lines were blurred, the Ministry acted decisively: relocating trade missions from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, and reaffirming that Nigeria speaks with one voice.  There is no room for diplomatic blunder in Nigeria. The message is clear: Nigeria will be a partner, not a pawn. Strategic autonomy means clarity of position first, and flexibility in tactics second.

ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION 
AfCFTA + global partnerships like China’s zero-tariff access. Nigeria is done with aid-for-diplomacy. The new model is trade-for-growth. Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, Nigeria is leveraging two levers simultaneously: 

1. Continental integration through the African Continental Free Trade Area, to build regional value chains. 

2. Global partnerships that open markets. China’s zero-tariff policy for eligible Nigerian exports is a case in point, creating new pathways for agriculture, manufacturing, and solid minerals to reach 1.4 billion consumers.

From the Lagos-Calabar coastal transport system to industrial parks in Ogun and Lekki, Chinese, European, and Gulf investments are being steered toward productive sectors. The goal is not dependency, but diversification: more partners, more markets, more Nigerian-made exports.

SECURITY SOVEREIGNTY
African-led, but open to any partner that delivers results. Nigeria’s security doctrine is rooted in the principle that Africans must lead African solutions. ECOWAS, the AU, and regional counter-terrorism frameworks remain central.

But strategic autonomy also means pragmatism. On terrorism, maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea, and cyber threats, Nigeria is open to cooperation with any partner, East or West that brings intelligence, technology, and capacity without conditions that undermine sovereignty. The benchmark is simple: results for Nigerian communities. Partnerships are judged not by ideology, but by impact on the ground.

TECHNOLOGICAL AGENCY 
Build, don’t just buy. Lead in AI and digital infrastructure. The 21st century will be won on data, chips, and talent. Nigeria refuses to be only a consumer. This is the essence of Minister Bosun Tijjani’s reforms in our digital ecosystem.  Through partnerships in 5G, fiber optics, and smart cities, Nigeria is negotiating technology transfer, not just procurement. Engagement with the World Artificial Intelligence Organization and related partnerships signal intent: to move from adoption to authorship.

The aim is to build domestic capacity in AI, fintech, and digital governance, so that Nigerian developers, not just foreign vendors, shape the platforms used daily by 200 million Nigerians. Technological agency is sovereignty in the digital age.

DIPLOMATIC FLEXIBILITY 
Engage all major powers without being locked into one camp. In a multipolar world, alignment is a choice made per issue, not per decade. Nigeria maintains a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with China on infrastructure and more. It deepens trade and security ties with the US and EU. It expands South-South cooperation with India, Brazil, and the Gulf. It leads on the continent through AfCFTA and AU reform.

This is not non-alignment. It is multi-alignment: engaging all, belonging to none, and extracting maximum value for Nigeria from each relationship. Strategic autonomy is alignment to Nigerian national interests. Nigeria’s 5 Pillars offer more than a foreign policy. They offer a template for mid-sized and emerging powers navigating great power competition. It is a policy of conviction without rigidity. Of partnership without dependence. Of ambition without illusion.

Nigeria will continue to deepen partnerships that deliver infrastructure, jobs, and technology, but always on Nigerian terms. In 2026, the measure of sovereignty is not who you oppose. It is what you are able to build.

We can no longer afford an economy built only on exporting raw materials to one market and importing finished goods from another. The African Continental Free Trade Area gives us the platform to build regional value chains. At the same time, we must diversify globally. This is why we welcome China’s decision to grant zero-tariff treatment to 53 African countries, while we simultaneously deepen trade with the EU, the US, the Gulf, and our neighbors in ECOWAS. No single partner can meet all our development needs, and we will not be dependent on any one.

The primary duty of any government is the protection of its citizens. That principle must guide our security partnerships. African-led solutions through the AU and ECOWAS remain our first choice. But we will not outsource our judgment. We greatly appreciate the US but if any country says he can help me to wipe out terrorism in Nigeria in the next two weeks, will I say because I’m friend to the US I will not agree? No,”. The safety of Nigerians comes first. Strategic autonomy means we evaluate every security offer by one metric: does it deliver peace, security and stability for our people?

In a multipolar world, we must talk to everyone and be forced to choose no one. This is not duplicity. It is maturity. We have demonstrated this in recent weeks. We condemned Afrophobic attacks in South Africa because the dignity of Nigerians abroad is non-negotiable. We pushed the agenda at the recent ECOWAS Summit in Freetown Sierra Leone where President Tinubu’s voice was clear and unambiguous. At the same time, we are preserving and strengthening the Nigeria-South Africa strategic partnership because both countries benefit from trade, investment, and regional leadership. That is strategic autonomy in practice.

The 4D Agenda meets a fragmenting World
The global shifts make this doctrine necessary today.  Today, we have multipolarity. The unipolar moment has passed. Power is diffused across Washington, Beijing, Brussels, New Delhi, Riyadh, and other capitals. Under President Tinubu’s 4D Foreign Policy Agenda: Demography, Development, Diaspora and Democracy — Nigeria’s diplomacy is calibrated to one question: what does this mean for Nigerian citizens? Ideological blocs are secondary to results.

Africa has 60% of the world’s youngest population. By 2050, one in four people on earth will be African.  Nigeria will be the third most populated country in the world by 2050. We cannot allow our future to be scripted by others. We must define our own development model, centered on jobs, skills, and innovation. In this context, some analysts have described our approach as “pragmatism devoid of doctrine.” I disagree.

“I don’t agree with that kind of characterization. Everything foreign policy is about national interest,”.  What we are doing is giving that age-old principle a modern name and structure. We are drawing from our own history. As one of my lecturers at the University used to say, “ non-alignment is alignment to your national interest.” That remains true. Doctrine without delivery is rhetoric. For strategic autonomy to produce tangible benefits, Africa must take deliberate steps.

We must fully implement AfCFTA to unlock a $3.4 trillion single market. That means reducing tariffs, harmonizing standards, and building cross-border infrastructure. We must invest heavily in energy and infrastructure. No factory runs without power. No trade happens without roads, rail, and ports. Strategic autonomy requires industrial power.

Africa must speak with one voice in global forums — at the UN, G20, and WTO. Africa’s 54 countries carry more weight together than separately. It is time to protect and deepen democratic institutions. Autonomy should never be confused with authoritarianism. The legitimacy of our choices comes from the consent of our people.

Let me be clear. Strategic autonomy is not about turning our backs on partners. It is about choosing partners freely. It is the right to trade with anyone, learn from everyone, and be dominated by no one. The world is fragmenting into blocs. Africa’s best option is not to join a bloc, but to become a bloc ourselves — economically integrated, politically coherent, and diplomatically confident.

Written by Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye,
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Federal Republic of Nigeria

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By Dr Festus Goziem Okubor writing from Ute-Erumu

Let us begin with a number so obscene it should make every Nigerian’s blood boil: Four trillion naira. That is what the fuel subsidy hemorrhage cost this nation in 2022 alone. Not on schools.

Not on hospitals. Not on the roads that swallowed trucks. Four trillion naira vanished into the pockets of smugglers, cartel kingpins, and the political godfathers who turned Nigeria’s treasury into their personal automated teller machine.

No doubt, the forecasts for 2023 were worse: over six trillion naira, a sum larger than the entire federal budgets of Ghana, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire combined, was projected to go up in smoke, literally. This was not a social safety net. This was not a helping hand for the poor. This was beyond reasonable sense, organized, industrial-scale looting dressed in the language of compassion. The Nigerian fuel subsidy was the greatest heist in the economic history of modern Africa, and for forty years, every single man who occupied Aso Rock looked the other way until
May 29, 2023.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu took the microphone, looked the subsidy vampire in the eye, and drove a stake through its heart. “Subsidy is gone,” he said. No committee. No white paper. No six-month stakeholder consultation designed to produce nothing. Just three words that every one of his predecessors lacked the spine to utter. That is what this piece is about: not spin, not propaganda, but the Cowardice Archive: Forty Years of Broken Promises.

Let us be brutally honest about our history, because the opposition would prefer we rather forget it.

Olusegun Obasanjo tried in 2003. He announced subsidy removal, faced protests, and retreated so fast you could hear the wind break. He tried again in 2004, then 2007; each time blinking at the first sign of resistance. The man who once boasted that Nigeria was not a nation of cows, yet the subsidy swallowed another trillion.

Goodluck Jonathan’s turn; 2012. The Occupy Nigeria movement took to the streets, and Jonathan, facing an election season capitulated completely. He not only restored the subsidy but entrenched it, ensuring the government, deducting billions at source for “under-recovery” a phrase that should live in infamy as the most expensive euphemism in Nigerian history.

Recall the scene again; Inauguration Day. The presidential speech writers must have scripted the
norm; politically correct platitudes; false hope, soothing words with unrealistic inanities. Instead,
Tinubu went off-script and detonated a policy bomb:  The fuel subsidy is gone.;
The political class was stunned. Where were the committees? Where was the national dialogue?
Where was the six-month palliation window that had killed every previous attempt? Tinubu had
done the unthinkable: he simply acted. No consultation with the subsidy cartel. No negotiation
with the smugglers. No advance warning to the political godfathers who had grown fat on the
arbitrage between Nigeria’s subsidized campaigns on removing the subsidy. Unlike his
predecessors, who promised reform and delivered capitulation, Tinubu promised action, and for
the first time in Nigerian history, a president& word was total, final and unbreakable.

Tinubu’s May 29 declaration was not cruel. It was the long-overdue demolition of a criminal
enterprise masquerading as social policy. No doubt the petrol prices soared as the immediate
effect of the proclamation. This part is always painted by political antagonists, in its most
gruesome form, while seeking to defame Tinubu as the cruelest President Nigeria ever had.

They refuse to speak on the positive effect that this has on the economy: monthly allocations to
states and Local Governments that once struggled to pay salaries now routinely exceed pre-2023
levels by margins of forty to sixty percent. Governors who spent years blaming Abuja for their
insolvency suddenly found themselves with resources they had never seen. Whereas this article
does not refute the fact that the masses have borne the immediate effect of subsidy removal, the
price shock, real and painful as it is, should not mask the other reality of structural reallocation
of national resources. Nigeria was spending more on subsidizing premium motor spirit than on
its entire capital budget. Let that sink in: more on fuel than on roads, power, health, and
education combined. Have you ever wondered why since 2023 there has been no serious fuel
scarcity in Nigeria? By now, with the current military interface between America, Israel and
Iran, and its attendant global oil crisis, the queues at filling stations as well as unreachable prices
would have crippled the nation.

The IMF, no friend of populist presidents, wants us to believe that the Dangote Refinery with its
650,000 barrels per day of domestic refining capacity is somehow Aliko Dangote’s achievement
alone, disconnected from government policy. This is either ignorance or deceit. The Dangote
Refinery reached operational status under Tinubu’s watch, because Tinubu created the conditions
for it to thrive. A downstream sector still shackled to subsidy economics would have made the
refinery commercially unviable. Why would anyone invest billions in domestic refining price,
quality, without competitive market access?

Consider where this leads: Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, has spent decades importing
refined petroleum because its own refineries were monuments to incompetence and corruption.
The subsidy regime made this madness profitable. Why fix refineries when you could import and
pocket the subsidy differential? Tinubu, the political tactician broke that vicious circle.

The end of fuel importation is no longer a distant dream. It is the logical terminus of policies
now in motion. And when that day comes, when Nigeria refines every drop of its own crude, the
credit will belong not only to Tinubu but to all of us through our collective resilience and
defiance against all that robbed Nigeria thin and lean through the heist of petroleum subsidy.
This collective resilience and defiance, no doubt, is coming with painful cost, as no honest
supporter of this administration is oblivious to the pain, through inflation that the removal of Oil
subsidy has brought on household budgets. This temporary painful condition, which will soon
end in the glory of a salvaged nation, that the rent-seekers who fed on Nigeria for forty years will
not refrain from deploying, using every bureaucratic trick, every media plant, every political
proxy to claw 2027 general elections.

As we approach the 2027 crossroads, the question on the ballot cannot be clearer. On one side:
the subsidy vampires, the political actors, business cartels, and bureaucratic networks that fed on
the narrative that Tinubu has made life harder; They will promise to bring back the good old
days; of cheap fuel. They will not mention that those days were financed by debt our
grandchildren will repay. On the other side: a president who, whatever his imperfections, did
what no one before him dared to do. He looked at a system designed to impoverish the nation
and enrich a few, and he dismantled it. Not gradually. Not after a committee report. On Day One.
The history of nations is written at moments like this.

Every country that has ever broken free ofa resource curse, whether Indonesia under Suharto, Brazil under Cardoso, or India under Rao,did so because someone, somewhere, decided to stop the bleeding, whatever the political cost.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu made that decision for Nigeria on May 29, 2023. The reforms are not
complete. The pain has not fully subsided. But the hemorrhage has been stanched.

The patient is stabilizing. No more fake fuel promises. Nigeria has heard enough of those to last a lifetime.

What we have now for the first time in a generation, is a president who said he would act, and
did.

That is a story worth telling in 2027. That is a record worth defending. That is a man worth
reelecting.