2025: The Year Tinubu’s Power Met Its Toughest Tests
By NJORIGE LYNUS
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu entered 2025 determined to prove that his administration had evolved beyond early-term promises into a government of measurable consequences. If 2023 was the year of accession and 2024 the year of foundational reforms, 2025 became the presidency’s true stress test — a period where power, perception, and precedent converged.
Rivers State: Emergency Powers and Democratic Fault Lines
The most dramatic assertion of executive authority came in March 2025, when Aso Rock declared a state of emergency in Rivers State, suspending the governor, deputy, and state legislature. The federal government defended the move as necessary to halt political instability in a state central to Nigeria’s oil output.
But the intervention unleashed a constitutional firestorm. Opposition voices and legal experts argued that dissolving an elected government without impeachment or court ruling risked institutional overreach. Supporters countered that the crisis demanded decisive federal intervention. Though the Supreme Court later affirmed the president’s emergency powers, the episode permanently shifted Nigeria’s federal-state power calculus.
Economic Triumph Announced, Debt Request Submitted
Tinubu’s economic communication strategy also came under pressure. In September, he publicly declared that Nigeria had met its revenue goals early and would not borrow in 2025. The announcement, delivered amid inflationary strain and public frustration over subsidy removal, briefly stabilised national sentiment.
However, weeks later, the administration sought approval for ₦1.15 trillion in domestic borrowing, alongside an already-negotiated external loan. The contradiction was swift and politically costly, reviving accusations of inconsistent fiscal messaging and weakening the administration’s credibility on economic transparency.
Maryam Sanda Clemency: A Symbolic Governance Misfire
In the justice sector, the presidency faced intense backlash after Maryam Sanda, a convicted murderer, was included on a presidential pardon list. Public reaction was fierce, cutting across political lines. Advocacy groups and legal commentators saw the pardon as emblematic of elite privilege superseding judicial finality. The government reversed the decision and commuted her sentence, but the Supreme Court ultimately reinstated the original judgment, cementing the controversy as one of the year’s biggest institutional credibility wounds.
Coup Rumours and a Security Reset
By October, coup rumours circulating in Abuja forced Aso Rock into a major military reshuffle. Independence Day celebrations were cancelled, and all service chiefs were replaced in sweeping fashion. The presidency framed it as routine reform, but analysts linked the timing to anxiety over rising military coups in West Africa and internal security fragility. No coup occurred, but the rumours exposed how national hardship can destabilise even unverified claims.
Religious Freedom Claims and International Rebuttals
On the global stage, the U.S. designation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” on religious freedom pushed Tinubu’s government into intense diplomatic defence. Aso Rock rejected claims of genocide against Christians, affirming Nigeria’s plural identity. The controversy, and the administration’s subsequent engagement with U.S. lawmakers, revealed the growing reality that Nigeria’s domestic security challenges now shape its global human rights profile.
The Legacy of 2025
The year did not rewrite Tinubu’s reform agenda, but it clarified his leadership instincts: assertive, swift, and reform-driven, yet at times disconnected from public perception. The lasting verdict of 2025 is not about the existence of power, but the negotiation of its limits.
