Inflation, Insecurity, Leadership: Nigerians Demand A Reset In 2026

ACROSS Nigeria, 2025 is being remembered as a year where citizens fought inflation, dodged insecurity, and questioned democracy’s humanity, but still looked ahead to 2026 with cautious hope.

In Owerri, trader and community voice Chinonso Nze said 2025 delivered the worst of both economic and security crises. He linked surging inflation to shrinking purchasing power, describing survival for traders as a collective miracle rather than economic outcome.

He also spotlighted kidnapping, highway violence, and the mass terrorisation of commuters. “Highways were unsafe. People were rounded up and taken into forests. Killing of innocent people became senseless and frequent,” he said, underscoring the collapse of internal mobility — a key economic artery — as one of the most destabilising outcomes of 2025.

With the 2026 tax regime looming, Nze urged government to treat fiscal reforms with social empathy, warning that citizens fear taxation without cushioning could worsen poverty. “Government exists for welfare. Any system that forgets this is anti-people,” he said.

Widow and mother, Mrs. Tina Udoka, said her hardship was not merely financial, but systemic. She questioned the absence of public feedback channels and welfare frameworks for vulnerable groups including widows, orphans, and unemployed graduates.

“What employment or start-up support exists for youths after education? What empowerment schemes protect families like mine?” she asked, lamenting what she described as a democracy serving proximity rather than humanity. “Public office holders serve themselves and their circles, not the people. That is our democratic tragedy,” she said.

For her, 2026 represents both a question mark and a prayer: “I hope 2026 will not be as tough. Government must invest in employment, not anger.”