In recent months, one can’t help but wonder if the “Renewed Hope” agenda of the Tinubu administration has quietly morphed into a nationwide campaign of name changes and vanity projects. Across Nigeria, public assets—many of them built decades ago by past administrations—are being rebranded with the president’s name. It’s not only excessive, it’s symbolic of everything wrong with governance today.
From the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre to the Tinubu Federal Polytechnic, and even the Tinubu Barracks, one begins to ask: is the goal to rename the country itself? Will our passports soon read Republic of Tinubu?
It’s easy to dismiss this as satire, but the bitter truth is no laughing matter. Former military president Ibrahim Babangida built the iconic International Conference Centre in 1991. Rather than invest in new infrastructure or expand national capacity, the Tinubu-led government chose to squander N39 billion on refurbishing an already functional building, then renamed it after the president.
All of this is happening while children in the Federal Capital Territory have been out of school for over three months. Primary healthcare centers are shut down. Area councils are non-functional due to prolonged industrial action. And all the while, insecurity festers like an untreated wound—abductions, banditry, and killings have become near-daily occurrences.
How can there be hope when governance is reduced to political branding and performative nationalism, while real people are dying from preventable diseases and avoidable insecurity?
Leadership is not about plastering your name on buildings. It is about legacy—tangible, people-centered, impactful legacy. A great leader builds schools and ensures children are in class. A visionary invests in healthcare, in security, and in the welfare of citizens. But what we see today is the glorification of power, not its responsible use.
The government’s priorities seem grossly misplaced. Instead of addressing hunger, inflation, joblessness, and an overstretched security apparatus, billions are spent refurbishing symbols of power and renaming them in honor of the very people Nigerians are holding accountable for their suffering.
There’s a name for this kind of leadership: narcissistic governance. It’s the kind that values ego over empathy, optics over outcomes.
If the Tinubu administration truly believes in renewing hope, it must start by renewing its own conscience. Listen to the people. Serve the people. Enough with the names. Enough with the vanity. Nigeria is bleeding, and the only name that should matter is justice
By: Godwin Offor
