Never in the history of Nigeria’s often antagonistic politics has one man been so maligned by so many, everywhere and all the time. Bola Ahmed Tinubu is so hated, so resented, that it is hard to find a historical parallel.
Our analysts have spent the past three months traveling across Nigeria and engaging with citizens from a wide range of backgrounds, including traders in Kano, elites in Kaduna, students in Nsukka, professors in Calabar, professionals in Lagos, farmers in Benue, civil servants in Abuja, artisans in Onitsha, and members of the diaspora from London to Atlanta, in order to understand the roots of this deep animosity.
What we discovered is that the resentment toward President Tinubu is not monolithic; it is shaped by a mix of regional grievances, economic frustrations, political disillusionment, and personal perceptions of his character, leadership and legacy.
Some see him as the embodiment of a broken political order, while others view him as a man of flawed character whose methods and alliances have come to symbolize the moral compromises, corruption, and mismanagement that define Nigerian politics and career politicians.
Yet beneath the outrage lies a complex narrative that reveals as much about the evolving nature of political legitimacy in Nigeria as it does about the man himself.
To understand the depth of this sentiment, one must look beyond abstract theories of governance and turn to the lived experiences of ordinary Nigerians, whose daily struggles give tangible form to this political discontent.
Tinubu’s name evokes anger in the markets of Aba, Onitsha, Kano, and Lagos, where traders curse the policies that emptied their stalls and strangled their profits.
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