2026: Nigeria can’t continue to be at crossroads -CHRICED

The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED) has berated the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration of perpetrating injustice against Nigerians through his actions that has continue to keep Nigeria at crossroads.

Executive Director of CHRICED, Comrade Ibrahim Zikirullahi, stated this on Saturday in Abuja during ‘The State of the Nation’ media conference.

According to him, the actions and inactions of the present administration has keep Nigeria at a crossroads and that across all the fronts of economy, governance, security, and civic freedoms, is a testament of the fact that Nigeria is at a crossroads.

“The choices made in 2026 will determine whether the country continues down a path of hardship, repression, and inequality, or whether it rises to reclaim the promise of justice, dignity, and shared prosperity.

“The Nigerian people have shown extraordinary resilience. But resilience is not enough. It is time for courage -from leaders and citizens alike. It is time to demand accountability, insist on transparency, defend civic freedoms, and refuse to normalize suffering.

“Nigeria cannot rise on the backs of a silenced people. It cannot progress while millions are hungry, unsafe, unheard, and unseen. The future will not change unless citizens insist on change,” Zikirullahi said.

While saying that 2025 was a year of trials, truths and turning points, the CHRICED boss said that the past year tested Nigerians in ways that echo the timeless words of Charles Dickens: “It was the worst of times. It was the age of foolishness.” Adding yet, even in the midst of hardship, Nigerians demonstrated a resilience that defies despair.

He said though 2025 began with hope that the lessons of 2024 would compel Nigerian political leaders to govern with empathy, prudence, and accountability; instead, citizens were met with deepening hardship, widening inequality, and a political class increasingly insulated from the suffering of the people.

He said, “Across the nation, families battled soaring prices, shrinking incomes, and a cost-of-living crisis that pushed millions to the brink. Inflation continued its relentless climb. The Naira weakened further. Jobs disappeared. Public services deteriorated. Hunger tightened its grip on households already stretched beyond endurance.”

Speaking on the state of economy, Zikirullahi said that the economic realities of 2025 did not merely challenge Nigerians, they suffocated them, with inflation continued to eat away at the value of every Naira, turning basic survival into a daily battle.

According to him, even when official figures suggested a slowdown, the lived experience of ordinary citizens told a different story: prices remained brutally high, wages remained stagnant, and the erosion of purchasing power continued unchecked.

He said that transportation costs soared, medicines slipped out of reach, essential goods became luxuries, families were forced into impossible choices -which meal to skip, which bill to ignore, which dream to abandon among others.

He also noted that though the prices of some food items, especially grains, may have dropped, many poor Nigerians are still unable to afford them due to lack of income.

“While the government celebrates these partial price reductions, farmers are counting their losses, as there has been no holistic approach to addressing the high cost of fertilizers, transportation and labour. Experts warn that this situation could discourage many farmers from returning to the fields next season -a looming threat that could deepen hunger and destabilize food security across the country.

“The naira’s weakened value has kept imported goods -and even many locally produced items -painfully expensive. The ripple effect is devastating: small businesses are collapsing, children are been withdrawn from schools, households are shrinking their diets, and communities are sliding deeper into poverty.

“Instead of offering relief, government policies often intensified the suffering. Higher taxes, rising bank charges, and inconsistent economic directives created confusion for businesses and despair for citizens. The so-called “reforms” became a burden carried almost entirely by the poor, while those in power remained insulated from the consequences of their decisions,” Zikirullahi said.

He said that late Prof. Chinua Achebe’s words echo with painful clarity: “When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat, it tells you not to worry because it has brought its own stool.”

Zikirullahi said, “In 2025, government-induced suffering did not just bring its own stool — it made itself a home in the lives of millions. And unless political leaders act with courage and conscience, 2026 risks becoming another year where Nigerians are asked to endure what no society should ever normalize.”

He also called for the implementation of the Oronsaye Report, which he said is a long-standing blueprint for reducing the cost of governance but remained buried under political convenience.

He lamented that instead of streamlining government, new agencies, committees, and appointments multiplied, consuming scarce resources that should have been directed toward lifting citizens out of poverty.

He equally said that the nation’s elections and democracy is a system in distress, as the off-cycle elections of 2025 once again exposed the fragility of Nigeria’s democracy, with reports of voter suppression, violence, ballot manipulation, and compromised institutions cast a long shadow over the electoral process.

He said, “Local government elections across many states were reduced to coronations for ruling parties. The absence of genuine competition undermines democracy and erodes public trust.

“The judiciary -once revered as the last hope of the common man- continued to struggle under the weight of public scepticism. Inconsistencies in judgments, allegations of corruption, and the perception of political capture further weakened confidence in the courts.”

Zikirullahi said that the year 2025 witnessed an alarming acceleration in Nigeria’s drift toward a de facto one-party state, saying the wave of defections from opposition parties to the ruling party – particularly the mass defection of lawmakers and governors- signalled a dangerous erosion of political pluralism.

He said, “This trend, already visible in 2023 and 2024, intensified in 2025 as opposition legislators across the National Assembly abandoned their mandates to align with the ruling party. This consolidation of political power undermines the very foundation of Nigeria’s democracy.

“A healthy democracy requires competition, dissent, and ideological diversity. Instead, Nigeria is witnessing a political landscape where dissent is punished, opposition is weakened, and political survival increasingly depends on allegiance to the ruling party.”

He warned that the consequences are profound, including reduced accountability, as the ruling party faces little institutional resistance; judicial vulnerability, as courts become susceptible to political influence; electoral manipulation, as seen in off-cycle elections where ruling parties swept all local government seats; and public disillusionment, as citizens lose faith in the possibility of meaningful political change.

He said, “This trend is not speculative – it is observable, measurable, and dangerous. If left unchecked, Nigeria risks sliding into a political order where elections exist only in form, not substance.”

On insecurity, the CHRICED boss said Nigeria in under siege and that despite massive allocations to defence and security, Nigerians remain trapped in fear.

“Kidnappings, banditry, insurgency, and violent crime continued to ravage communities across the country. From highways to farmlands, from schools to marketplaces, from Churches to Mosques, insecurity tightened its grip, leaving citizens traumatized and exhausted.

“Farmers abandoned their fields. Students were abducted or forced out of school. Businesses relocated or shut down. Entire communities were displaced. The human and economic toll is staggering — and unacceptable. A nation that cannot guarantee safety cannot guarantee development. Nigeria cannot rise while its citizens live under siege,” Zikirullahi said.

He also warned of the shrinking civic space through silencing the voices of the people and that instead of confronting insecurity with urgency, the state turned its attention to silencing dissent.

He said that the civic space shrank further in 2025, as peaceful protesters were arrested, activists harassed, journalists intimidated, while civil society organizations faced new regulatory pressures designed to weaken their voice and restrict their work.

He said, “When citizens are afraid to speak, when journalists are punished for reporting the truth, when activists are targeted for defending rights, the nation loses its moral anchor. Civic space is the heartbeat of democracy. Without it, accountability dies, corruption thrives, and tyranny grows.

“Nigeria cannot afford to drift into authoritarianism under the guise of “order” or “regulation.” The right to speak, to organize, to protest, and to hold leaders accountable is non-negotiable. It is the lifeblood of a free society. The message of 2025 is clear: the people are suffering, the system is failing, and silence is no longer an option.”