‘We Never Suffered Like This Under Jonathan or Buhari’ — Lagos Residents Slam Tinubu Over Economic Hardship

A swelling wave of public frustration has boiled over on the streets of Lagos, as local residents and traders openly condemn the severe cost-of-living crisis under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

In highly charged declarations across major commercial hubs in the president’s home state, citizens compared their current economic misery to previous administrations. They expressed deep anger that having a Yoruba leader in power has yielded unprecedented suffering, displacement, and financial ruin rather than regional prosperity.

“When Goodluck Jonathan was President, he didn’t break Yoruba land. When Buhari was President, he didn’t break Yoruba land,” a resident speaking for a protesting group of local traders lamented. “But now that we have Tinubu, who is a Yoruba man, when we should be enjoying the benefits of having our own man in power, we are suffering, dying every day, and becoming homeless.”

The Irony of Regional Power: Bitter Realities for the South-West

The brewing anger highlights a sharp psychological shift among voters in the South-West geopolitical zone. During the lead-up to the previous general elections, the regional sentiment was widely used to mobilize solidarity for Tinubu’s candidacy.

Today, however, the reality of skyrocketing commodity prices, currency devaluation, and the demolition of local markets has shattered that political sentiment. Lagosians express deep bitterness that an administration led by a prominent son of the soil has introduced fiscal policies that have pushed basic food staples out of reach for the working class.

Slum Demolitions and the Rising Wave of Homelessness

Compounding the pain of food insecurity is a widespread housing crisis across the metropolitan area. Recent state-backed urban renewal drives and enforcement actions by environmental task forces have led to the leveling of several informal settlements, leaving thousands of urban poor without shelter.

Displaced residents accuse the government of execution strategies that completely disregard human dignity. Activists point out that the continuous destruction of low-income housing, combined with high rent inflation in safe residential zones, is actively driving families onto the streets, exacerbating a growing humanitarian issue.

A Democracy Feeling Like a Dictatorship

The sudden clamping down on street trading, combined with aggressive local tax collection and a heavy security presence around popular protest spaces, has led residents to compare current governance to military regimes.

“It is unfortunate that we are going through what feels like a dictatorship in a democratic system,” another market organizer stated. Community leaders complain that public channels for expressing grievances are being systematically suppressed, leaving citizens feeling completely disconnected from the representatives they elected to power.

Pressure Mounts on the Administration to Reverse Policies

As public discontent turns into organized local demonstrations, civil society groups warn that the federal government’s pleas for patience are running out of track.

With transport unions, trade associations, and youth groups openly aligning in their criticism, political analysts suggest that the administration must introduce immediate economic relief measures. Until the federal government balances its macroeconomic structural adjustments with localized food and housing subsidies, the very political base that brought the presidency to power may become its most vocal opposition.
(247Ureports)