2024 was such an eventful year for Nigerians, and we do not mean this in a positive way; the year stressed Nigerian citizens in many ways. From the constant disgrace of the Naira to the sky-high inflation rates, the unending fuel queues, the painfully high cost of living, and more, Nigerians saw shege that was heavily televised.
Politicians in the country were no better either; in different ways, they added to the frustrations of Nigerians either by idly watching as citizens suffer due to harmful policies, helping implement those policies themselves, supporting them, or generally incompetent at their jobs. As the year slowly comes to an end, we thought to remind you (and the politicians) of their bad characters within the year by giving them awards that represent all they did in 2024.
Godswill Akpabio- Best in Agbaya behaviour
Godswill Akpabio is Nigeria’s Senate President, but this year, he did and said things that were in no way appropriate for the leader of the Nigerian Senate. On July 31, for instance, while Nigerians prepared for the Hunger Protests, Akpabio was in the news for mocking the protest plans of many Nigerians.
While he attended a Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) event, the Managing Director of the NDDC, Samuel Ogbukwu, made a solidarity statement saying the Niger Delta region was in support of the present administration and wasn’t pushing for a regime change to which Apkabio responded. “…You said we are not interested in regime change; let us own this government. Those who want to protest can protest, but let us be here eating.”
The Senate President was famous in 2024 for insulting the sensibilities of ordinary Nigerians, and there are other instances of this, but that was not the only thing he was guilty of this year. He also had a thing for showing his loyalty and support to the Tinubu administration to the detriment of the reputation of his office as the leader of the Senate, an arm of government which is supposed to keep the executive in check.
In May 2024, in the thick of suffering for Nigerians, Apkabio thought Tinubu’s intention to phase out the country’s national anthem for the old anthem, “Nigeria we hail thee”, was a fantastic idea, and he didn’t just show this by skipping an essential step like a public hearing and ensuring that the bill was hastily passed in a matter of days, he also thought it’d be fun to voice his thoughts on the bill even if they didn’t make sense to anyone.
On June 18, a few weeks after the bill passed, Akpabio implied that the national anthem change was the best thing since sliced bread because, according to him, insecurity, one of Nigeria’s biggest problems, wouldn’t exist if the anthem hadn’t been removed. In his words: “If we kept the anthem, we probably would not have banditry today in Nigeria because if you took your neighbour as your brother, you would not want to kill your brother…”
Akpabio probably saw the criticisms that followed this development as haters hating because, in December, he topped off his pro-Tinubu theatrics with an even more distasteful drama. On Wednesday, December 18, when Tinubu walked into the Senate chamber to present the controversial 2025 budget, Akpabio, like a true Agbaya, started singing, “On your mandate, we shall stand!” (and other senators joined in) even before the President had a chance to begin his presentation.
This behaviour is wrong on all fronts, and Nigerians called him out for it, but the thing with the winner of the Agbaya prize is that he does not seem to care that his behaviour is unbecoming his position. Just like an Agbaya wouldn’t. We couldn’t think of a more fitting winner for this award.
Remi Tinubu– Best in “Innovative Solutions”
Like the previous politician, this award-winner was mighty proud of her decisions, but there is something quite unique about her. No, it’s not her position as the wife of Nigeria’s President; her one big thing is that she wasn’t in the news for merely supporting her husband’s ideas and performance (or of others in his government); she backed up her support by coming up with innovations of her own.
Like most things, food was costly for Nigerians in 2024, but Remi Tinubu did not think this crisis would be solved by finding solutions to insecurity, inflation, climate change, or any other cause of the problem; she felt that food would suddenly become affordable if all Nigerians started cultivating a garden in their backyard, so she came up with the “Every Home a Garden” farming Initiative in July to “boost food production” in the country.
In September, ahead of the country’s Independence Day, Remi Tinubu came up with yet another brilliant innovation— a unity fabric.
The Unity Fabric is a special project, which envisions the end to national issues caused by tribal differences through the help of a fabric (Unity Fabric) which would be worn by all.
Haters will say that these brilliant innovations did not yield any results, but what did they say about haters hating again?
Abdulmalik Sarkindaji– 1st Runner Up, Innovative Solutions category
The position of the most innovative Nigerian politician of 2024 was hotly contested, but the speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, held his own and came out second only to Remi Tinubu, all thanks to a bright idea he came up with in the first half of the year.
On May 10, Sarkindaji announced that he was going to marry off 100 orphan girls who lost their parents due to attacks in the Mariga Local Government Area (LGA) of Niger State. Sarkindaji probably took a look at obvious solutions like scholarship programs and scoffed because he believed in his genius idea. Even when he came under fire for his plan, he stuck to it and was able to marry all 100 of the girls off in separate ceremonies on Friday, May 24.
Yahaya Bello– Best in audacity
This year, Yahaya Bello proved that you can get away with just about anything in Nigeria with the right amount of audacity.
Bello’s journey to this award first started in April 2024 when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said he used $720,000 of state funds (during his time as governor) to pay the school fees of his children in advance to the American International School in Abuja. The EFCC shortly attempted to arrest Bello on April 17 over corruption charges it brought up against him, but the former governor evaded the arrest and was declared wanted. Bello continued to play in Nigerians’ faces until November when he submitted himself to the EFCC. If another politician won the audacity category, it’d insult what Bello pulled off this year.
Adebayo Adelabu– Best in incompetence
This is by far the most hotly contested award category because by default, both President Tinubu and everyone in his administrations were eligible for this award but the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, worked extremely hard to emerge the winner of this category.
This year under Adelabu, Nigerians, on top of having an epileptic power supply were thrown into complete darkness as a result of the collapse of the national grid.
In 2024, the national grid fell so much that Nigerians stopped being surprised when it happened. In a particular week in October, for instance, the grid collapsed three times, and by December, it had collapsed 12 times in total.
The award for this category should naturally go to Tinubu, but that would be stating the obvious, so for this reason, because Adelabu’s failures are the only ones as loud as Tinubu’s, he gets to go home with the award for most incompetent Nigerian politician of the year.
Tinubu– Grandpatron award
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu gets this position not only because he is the leader of all the politicians in the country but simply because there is nobody badder. Tinubu’s doings are so loud that his policies from the previous year are still showing an immeasurable amount of shege to Nigerians.
While Nigerians battled with the unending consequences of the removal of fuel subsidies, the devaluation of the Naira, and many others, the grand patron taxed them more while continuing to promise things that he never did.
Under President Tinubu, the exchange rate skyrocketed, several factories closed down, the manufacturing sector went into life support, and Nigerians suffered hunger more than ever. This translated to what has been described over and over by the international media and experts as the worst economic crisis on record witnessed by Nigeria.
In response to this hardship, Tinubu has been adorned with nicknames like T Pain, so we cannot think of a more deserving winner than him.
Going into 2025, we hope for better representation and leadership from Nigerian politicians, and we’ll be on the alert to report their bad and hopefully good behaviours to you.
