Elections News | Al Jazeera Skip linksSkip to Contentplay Live Sign upShow navigation menuNavigation menuNewsShow more news sectionsAfrica.
On the quietest days, the 43-year-old sits outside reading the Quran while waiting for buyers.
Her business once attracted a steady flow of customers. But as prices have risen, many Nigerians have been forced to cut back on purchases they once considered routine.
Oyedele’s profits have fallen, and the shop that was once fully stocked now carries fewer goods.
Oyedele’s struggle captures the political dilemma facing President Bola Tinubu as Nigeria moves towards the 2027 presidential election: whether voters will judge his reforms by their long-term promises or by the immediate economic pain they have endured.
Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy shortly after taking office in 2023 and introduced foreign-exchange reforms that allowed the naira to trade more freely, arguing that the measures were necessary to strengthen public finances, attract investment, and stabilise Africa’s largest economy.
The reforms won support from investors and economists who had long argued that Nigeria needed to address deep structural problems in its economy. But the benefits of such reforms are typically slower to reach households than the costs they create.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Nigeria’s reforms had improved macroeconomic stability, but warned that living conditions remained difficult for many citizens.
For many households, the immediate impact has been higher food prices, rising transport costs and declining purchasing power.
For Tinubu, the political test is not only defending his reforms. It is persuading voters to endure their costs before they feel their benefits.
Tinubu’s government points to improving economic indicators as evidence that the reforms are beginning to work.
But many Nigerians experience the economy through what they pay for food, transport and basic household needs.
For Oyedele, the crisis is measured not through official figures, but through what her family can afford.
That gap between government economic arguments and household realities could become one of the defining issues of the election.
Economic hardship is not the only challenge facing the government.
Nigeria continues to face insecurity involving armed fighters, kidnappers and religious groups, particularly in parts of the north and Middle Belt.
Anne Ochayi, a 31-year-old lawyer living in Makurdi, told Al Jazeera that insecurity remains her biggest concern as she travels through the region, where she worries about banditry, farmer-herder violence, robbery and kidnapping.
The security crisis gives opposition parties another issue to campaign on. But public frustration alone does not guarantee electoral change.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi remain among the most prominent opposition figures seeking to challenge Tinubu, but attempts to unite the opposition behind a single candidate have so far failed.
Tinubu enters the race facing dissatisfaction over the economy and insecurity, but the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) retains one of its biggest advantages: organisation.
The APC controls the federal government and has built one of Nigeria’s most extensive political networks, giving Tinubu an advantage in grassroots mobilisation.
Ojeniyi said those networks matter because Nigerian elections are fought through local political structures as much as national campaigns.
For voters such as Oyedele and Thomas Eneji, the election will ultimately be judged by whether daily life improves, not by political promises.
Eneji, a ride-hailing driver in Abuja, told Al Jazeera he plans to vote in 2027 and hopes for a government that can make life easier for workers like him.
Fuel costs, he said, have made it harder for drivers to earn enough to survive.
But he also worries about whether votes will translate into political change.
Fontes
Informação baseada em material público de Al Jazeera, reescrito pela redação ULTRA NOTÍCIAS.
