By Godfrey Ubaka
It is indeed in line with traditions and established conventions to start off a new year by wishing friends, family members and Associates a ‘Happy New Year’. This in some ways comes with a weightier significance in the context of Nigeria’s setting where there are many odds to settle, daily survival mountains to surmount, a year could seem in some cases like eternity.
The ending to year2025 to many therefore came like an eagerly expected relief. In line with established traditions at this time of the year, it is equally expected that we take out time to reflect on how well we have fared as individuals, groups and nations in the year 2025. This is important for us to fashion out ways to fare better in the new year, 2026. I therefore come in that light to wish The Pointer family and all the growing team of readers an engaging, enthralling and fulfilling year ahead.
The events that mark out a year do not just happen, often, every year is shaped by issues and incidents that are in most cases, carry-overs of the year that just ended. The events of 2025 do therefore provide a window from which a peep can be taken into the issues that will shape year 2026, locally and internationally.
And so it is that no special gifting in clairvoyance is needed to know that ahead of 2027, desperate political horse-trading will be intensified, more defections will be witnessed, more infiltrations and factionalization of opposition parties, the political battle for the soul of Rivers State will get dirtier and possibly messier.
The State of Emergency may have come and gone but the issues that built up to it are yet to be dusted. The political godfather may however be losing desperate grip of the State in a most dramatic manner. Year 2026 will therefore turn out to be a politically turbulent year for not just Fubara but Nigerians as the key political features of a one party state steadily loads…
With regard to the fight against terrorism, Trump having put his hands on the plough will definitely not look back anytime soon. The terrorists will therefore reconfigure their operational modalities by spreading out to some more locations in the South-west and South-southern parts of the country. Follow-up strikes will definitely come to take the counter-terrorism crusade to a more defining level. At the weekend, Trump again demonstrated to the world what 2026 holds when he announced the capture of the Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro, Wife Cilia Flores and daughter on drugs and terrorism charges.
While America feels justified ending 13 years of dictatorship, Venezuelans described the strikes as unmitigated foreign aggression and called for national mobilisation to end American aggression. The lot that befell the South American country in the opening of the new year happen to be a carry-over of unsettled diplomatic gaps and glitches in the year 2025.
As is therefore the case at the beginning of every New Year, Nigerian streets, offices and telephone conversations are already crammed with pleasantries. While we wish each other a happy new year, it is also important to wish our country well. We really do not need anybody from outside to remind us of the gory truth that as a country, we did not do well in 2025. The economy is yet to work. Growing insecurity kept the country on her knees. Hope of rebuilding national infrastructure is yet to be realized. The fight against corruption now wears a political mask.
Year 2025 was replete with stories of pervasive insecurity nationwide. The year was such a humiliating one for Nigeria, the President of America had to refer to the country as the ‘now disgraced country’ at about same time that Ghana also started repatriating thousands of Nigerians on account of prostitutions and cybercrime charges. Nigerian citizens faced humiliating deportations from nations far and near.
Canada for instance deported 366 Nigerians in 2025 as 974 more awaited enforcement surge of new immigration laws.
In addition to those already repatriated, 974 are currently listed under ‘removal in progress’, awaiting deportation .
Nigeria is said to rank ninth among the top countries whose citizens were deported during the period and fifth in the backlog of pending removals—the only African nation to feature in both categories. There are no strong indications that 2026 presents a more lucid hope for citizens to stay back in their country and have the needed socio-economic environment to positively impact their world.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu in his new year message to a beguiled nation, declared that 2026 in line with his Renewed Hope mantra would mark the beginning of a more robust phase of economic growth for Nigeria, pledging to drive down inflation further, strengthen foreign reserves and sustain the country’s GDP growth trajectory.
President Tinubu argued that during 2025, his administration sustained momentum on major reforms, achieved a fiscal reset and recorded steady economic progress. Despite persistent global economic headwinds stating that Nigeria recorded tangible and measurable gains, particularly in the economy.
His words, ‘In 2026, we are determined to reduce inflation further and ensure that the benefits of reform reach every Nigerian household’.
Nigeria’s economic outlook for 2026 is characterised by projected growth of around 4.2%, driven by ongoing reforms, but faces significant challenges including revenue shortfalls, bloated public debt, and palpable political instability. The nexus between political developments and economic recovery trends remain unarguable. In 2025 Nigeria’s democracy got admitted into the intensive care unit of the national hospital. The events of 2026 will confirm the patient as either recuperating or degenerating.
Nigeria faces widening revenue shortfalls and rising public debt. The Finance Minister has indicated that federal revenues for 2025 fell significantly short of targets, leading to tighter fiscal policies in 2026. The controversy trailing the new tax law may not be settling anytime soon. There are no concrete plans to wean the nation’s economy and development projections from the monolithic dependence from oil and gas receipts. There have continued to be yawning gaps in non-oil revenue collection, which significantly impact social infrastructure and investment.
The political environment in 2026 remains complex, with ongoing reforms aimed at improving governance and economic stability. 2026 is not an election year in Nigeria but the pressure of build-up will be felt in virtually all the sectors amidst mounting risks of insecurity, and inconsistent policy implementation.
Nigeria’s economic outlook for 2026 therefore shows potential for growth but the accompanying challenges require careful management and strategic reforms to ensure stability and improved living standards for citizens.
Rather sadly, Year 2025 claimed the lives of many including Former President Muhammadu Buhari who died in London in July 2025,Arthur Mbanefo former Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, Doyin Okupe
Doyin Okupe, a former presidential aide and outspoken political commentator Dan Agbese
Veteran journalist Dan Agbese died in November at the age of 81. Mohammed Lawal Uwais 87.Former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Segun Awolowo grandson of nationalist icon Chief Obafemi Awolowo, died at the age of 62.
Christian Chukwu
Legendary footballer and former Super Eagles captain Christian Chukwu died on April 12, 2025, at the age of 74.
Uma Ukpai
Renowned evangelist and founder of the Uma Ukpai Evangelistic Association, Uma Ukpai, died on October 6, 2025, aged 80, after more than five decades of ministry.
Christopher Kolade
Corporate leader, broadcaster and academic Christopher Kolade died in October at the age of 93.
Jeremiah Useni
Retired lieutenant general and former FCT minister Jeremiah Useni died in January at the age of 82. This is wishing you and eventful year ahead with an earnest desire that the process for the rebuilding of Nigeria starts now, with you and me. May you survive the turbulence ahead.
