EDITORIAL: 2026: Confronting challenges, building hope

Nigerians, like the rest of humanity, embraced the New Year, 2026, with the usual exhilaration. Midnight fireworks were on display and ‘Happy New Year’ felicitations to relations and friends went viral. In churches, prayers were offered to God for guiding the living to the new dawn.

Indeed, the dawning of the new year was a moment of hope for a better future, against the backdrop of lingering harsh socio-economic and security conditions. But despair is not an option. Yes, high costs of living and inflation that keeps shrinking incomes would likely continue to strut the economic landscape. Turning the tide of decades of economic abuses is the work of painstaking statecraft by a leadership ready to take on entrenched interests, in a manner that would ultimately lead to the common good.

Our national history is replete with the chronicles of the resilience of Nigerians, when confronted by deepening and relentless adversity. It is a huge national asset that speaks to the creativity and adaptation, which anchor the survival of the people. These are evident across the informal sector – market and retail traders, artisans, transport operators, mechanics and farmers – to formal, digital entrepreneurship, driven mostly by the youths.

This is a powerhouse of the economy, with its GDP contribution of 42.5 per cent in 2025, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data. We need youths who see not just challenges in the economy, but also nuggets or opportunities in it for success.

Admittedly, a 3.39 per cent GDP growth in 2025 and inflation rate that came down to 14.45 per cent are upshots of positive economic reforms. Still, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) projects that the GDP would hit 4.49 per cent in 2026. But this can only count if it shows visible or tangible impacts on the wellbeing of ordinary Nigerians.

The yearning for such results needs to be well-coordinated for effectiveness. The April 2025 World Bank Poverty and Equity Brief that put the rural population living below the poverty line at 75.5 per cent and 41.3 per cent for their urban counterparts are inequality gaps that require a lot of hard work to get erased.

Governance at the local government level remains emasculated as statutory revenue allocations are still not paid directly to the councils. Ending this abuse, we believe, would boost the economy at the grassroots, where most Nigerians are domiciled.

It speaks ill of this democracy and the rule of law, that since 11 July 2024, when the Supreme Court delivered the judgment directing local governments’ funds to be paid directly to them, in line with Section 162 (5-8) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, this is still being observed in the breach. The allocations, which are paid into the State-Local Government Joint Accounts, are siphoned immediately by the state governors.

Therefore, we welcome President Bola Tinubu’s recent threat to invoke his powers under the constitution to reverse the trend, if the governors continue to abuse the law. He said, “If you wait for my Executive Order, because I have the knife, I have the yam, I will cut it…Otherwise if you don’t start to implement, FAAC after FAAC, you will see.”

Also, of critical concern – regrettably – is the tardy nature of business in the National Assembly, such that the lawmakers are yet to complete the constitutional amendments. Some of the most critical provisions include those on the state police; creation of new states; 182 parliamentary seats reserved for women across the country; and the electronic transmission of results to enhance the transparency and credibility of our elections, and their outcomes.

Statutorily, these amendments will be forwarded to the 36 state assemblies for their concurrence. At least two-thirds or 24 of them are required before the final passage of the amendments into constitutional provisions. As electioneering campaigns for the February/March 2027 elections flag off this January, our fear is that it might impair this crucial legislative assignment and by inference, the devolution of power, which enhances our democracy.

Hence, PREMIUM TIMES is calling on lawmakers at both the federal and state levels, not to sacrifice national interest – indicated by these constitutional alterations that needed to be consummated – on the altar of political expediency, signposted by their re-election designs.

Quite early, it is clear that insecurity would remain an albatross in 2026. This was evident in the vile reality that descended on the Chigwi community, in the Vwang District of Jos South Local Government Area in Plateau State, on New Year’s Eve, when gunmen invaded and massacred nine people, some of them women and children. In Adamawa State, ISWAP terrorists burnt down a Christian village on 1 January and gave the residents an ultimatum to convert to Islam or be killed.

These scourges, very common during Yuletide, explain why on Christmas Day, the US Military African Command (AFRICOM), stationed in the Gulf of Guinea, hit ISIS terrorists’ camps in Sokoto State, with 16 GPS-guided precision munitions, at the behest of President Donald Trump.

Nigerian authorities had collaborated with the US by providing it with intelligence, compelled by President Donald Trump’s threat of military action, having re-designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. “They didn’t think that was coming, but we hit them hard. Every camp got decimated,” Mr Trump boasted after the strike.

President Bola Tinubu had pledged “deepening cooperation with regional and global partners” in his New Year message. Evidently, this new level of US role signals a game-changer in Nigeria’s fight against terrorism.

Since the 25 December strike, the US military has been conducting reconnaissance missions in the Lake Chad Basin and Sambisa Forest in Borno State, which are havens to Boko Haram jihadists and their ISWAP affiliates, who have been responsible for the countless killings of both civilians and soldiers for more than a decade. About 1.9 million people in the North-East have been internally displaced as a result.

The prospect is high that terrorist enclaves in that geo-political zone would soon be hit by the unmanned aerial missiles of the US AFRICOM. A single bombardment in Sokoto, analysts say, cannot be the solution that Nigeria needs in wiping out terror groups. Similar US offensives would headline 2026, as heralded by US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth’s warning of “more to come.”

It is instructive for Nigerians to realise that no democracy consolidates without the active participation of citizens in the political processes and taking hold of the civic space for actions that speak truth to power. With the implementation of the four new tax laws, which have just begun, signalling the greater contributions of Nigerians to the public treasury, this should spark their deeper interest in governance, especially in demanding accountability and good governance.

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We are deeply concerned that public silence on NNPCL’s perennial dodging of the Senate Public Accounts Committee’s summons for it to come and defend the Auditor-General’s queries, on ₦210 trillion in expenses and receivables, from 2017 to 2023, has dragged on since July 2025. This is riding roughshod over the sensibilities of Nigerians. We are calling on the authorities to rein in NNPCL to become accountable to the Nigerian people!

A collective voice and demand of citizens, with regard to participation in governance in America, set the alarm bell for the great Revolution, with the chant of “No taxation without representation.” This culminated in the country’s independence from colonial Great Britain in 1776. There is a huge lesson to learn from this.

This year should mark a new beginning for Nigerians in holding public office holders to account; questioning profligacy and demanding transparency in the conduct of the business of government, in order to restore the moral health of this country, going forward.