Today’s the last day of 2025. It is therefore important to remind ourselves of major, defining moments of the year as it concerns Nigeria. I have chosen to look at the state of play of the economy, politics and security. These are no doubt the critical sectors and main pillars of the country.
Starting with the economy, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the N54.99 trillion 2025 Appropriation Bill into law on February 28, 2025. The bill was passed by the National Assembly on February 13, 2025, after being increased from the initial figure of N49.7 trillion submitted by the president. The breakdown of the 2025 budget shows a total Expenditure of ₦54.99 trillion; Statutory Transfers: ₦3.65 trillion; Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure: ₦13.64 trillion; Capital Expenditure: ₦23.96 trillion; Debt Servicing: ₦14.32 trillion; Deficit-to-GDP Ratio: 1.52%. Unfortunately, 70 per cent of the 2025 budget will be rolled over into 2026.
This may have been occasioned by the revelation of the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, who opened up on Tuesday, December 16 that the Federal Government recorded a significant revenue shortfall in the 2025 fiscal year. He noted that while the Federal Government projected N40.8tn revenue for this year, it ended up making only N10.7tn. The long and short of this disclosure is that Nigeria’s economy did not do well in the outgoing year.
Nigerians continue to face cost of living crisis in 2025 as many more people drop below poverty line. In October 2025, the World Bank reported that approximately 139 million Nigerians (about 61% of the population) were living below the poverty line, an increase from 81 million in 2019, despite recent economic reforms, highlighting that macroeconomic gains weren’t translating to improved living standards due to high food inflation and reduced consumption. World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Mathew Verghis, disclosed this at the launch of the Nigeria Development Update report in Abuja.
On a positive note, the economic reform of having regional development centers was consummated this year. All the six geo-political zones now have development commissions with the board and management structures of all of them constituted in the outgoing year. It is believed that in due course, these interventionist agencies will bridge infrastructural gaps in their respective regions as well as improve governance systems at the sub-regional levels.
Another major economic milestone of 2025 is the passage and assent to the four new tax laws. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed tax reform bills into law on June 26, 2025, during a ceremony at the State House in Abuja. The new laws are considered the most comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria’s fiscal architecture in decades and are expected to improve revenue collection, enhance the business environment, and attract both local and international investment. Unfortunately, earlier this month, a member of the House of Representatives, Abdulsamad Dasuki, raised concerns about what he described as discrepancies between the tax laws passed by the National Assembly and the versions subsequently gazetted and made available to the public. This is currently being investigated by the National Assembly with an ad-hoc committee already inaugurated to find out what went wrong. This has reinforced the call for the suspension of the new tax laws with implementation scheduled to start on January 1, 2026
On the political front, 2025 witnessed a lot of political activities to the extent that concerns were raised about early campaigns by some aspirants with the incumbent president being most visible in this respect. However, major political events include: the adoption of African Democratic Party as the major coalition platform. On Wednesday, July 2, 2025, political juggernauts across several political parties decided to adopt the ADC as the platform to wrestle power from the ruling All Progressives Congress. Among the notable politicians that gathered at the Yar’Adua Centre, venue of the unveiling of the new platform, were the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; ex-National Chairman of the ruling APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, erstwhile President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, former Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; presidential candidate of LabourParty in the 2023, Peter Obi; ex-Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai and ex-Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Ameachi, to mention a few.
Six months after the unveiling, ADC is yet to attract any serving governor or members of the legislative assemblies despite the deluge of defections that took place in 2025. Not even the children of the new party chieftains who are in the House of Representatives have been able to defect to the party of their fathers. It was only in the last week of November that ex Vice President Atiku Abubakar formally registered to be member of ADC while Peter Obi is yet to formalise his membership.
2025 will go down well in the political history of Nigeria as a year of political tsunami. About eight governors (that of Delta, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Enugu, Rivers, Taraba, Plateau, and Osun) have defected from PDP to the APCand Accord party. Speculation is rife that Kano State governor is also set to defect into APC. Scores of senators, House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly members have similarly defected, most of them into APC and few into other opposition parties. APC now has more than two-third majority in the Senate and House of Representatives. In 2025, Nigeria became a de-factoone party state though it remains a de-jure multiparty democracy. By this, I mean a dominant one-party state. It was also in this year that President Bola Tinubu slammed a six-month suspension on Rivers state governor, Deputy Governor and members of state house of assembly when he declared state of emergency on the state from March 18 – September 18, 2025.
Intra-party crisis continues to plague the ruling and opposition political parties. For instance, in a controversial manner, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje resigned as the national chairman of APC in July 2025 and had to be replaced by Professor Nentawe Yilwatda as its new National Chairman same month, PDP’s internal wranglings is yet to be resolved as the year ends today. In terms of electioneering the Independent National Electoral Commission on August 16 conducted bye-election into vacant legislative positions across 13 states while it also conducted a successful off-cycle governorship election in Anambra State on November 8, 2025. The commission in August commenced a yearlong continuous voters registration exercise while the tenure of the former INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu ended in October 2025, a new chairman was appointed in the person of Prof. Joash Ojo-Amupitan.
Security remains a nagging issue in 2025 as activities of insurgents and bandits spiked in the outgoing year. The year witnessed a rebound of mass abduction of school children and worshipers as well as violence by ISWAP and Boko Haram insurgents. The country ranked sixth on the 2025 Global Terrorism Index. This heightened insecurity made US President Donald Trump to declare Nigeria as a country of particular concern on October 31, 2025. In partnership with US military there was an unprecedented aerial bombardment of terrorist hideouts in Sokoto State on Christmas Day. State of emergency has been declared on insecurity with money released for the refurbishment of police training institutions, presidential order to recruit a total of 50,000 policemen and withdrawal of police on VIP escort duties. Armed forces service chiefs were also sacked after the rumour of alleged mutiny by some soldiers in October
Governance is a work in progress and Nigerians look forward to higher standard of living in 2026. They look forward to political activities devoid of bloodletting as the country prepares for the 2027 General Elections which arescheduled for the first quarter of that year. My compatriots also hope that criminal elements will be subdued and insecurity brought under control. Happy new year, in advance!
I.G: @jideojong
