The best things in life are expensive

President Tinubu is spending billions of naira on “sensitive assets.”

Jan 06, 2025

Good morning, Big Brains. How was your weekend? Mine was interesting. My birthday pictures got over 5,000 likes, which is funny because my 300 followers were the target audience. Now, I’m getting funny DMs and loads of followers that I didn’t ask for. I also got a blender that comes with a processor for my birthday, and when I tell you that this was the perfect gift, I’m not even joking. I know my kitchen is going to hate to see me coming now.

- Margaret

Word count: ~ 1, 000
Reading time ~ 4 mins

This Week’s Big Question: ”What’s your biggest goal in 2025?” Share your responses with us, and if we think they’re fun enough, we’ll feature them in the newsletter :) so be on the lookout.

Let’s get into the news you missed during the weekend:

FG wants to insure “sensitive assets” with billions of naira
Tinubu wants the kids to eat good

The Big Deal

FG wants to insure “sensitive assets” with billions of naira.

Coco Chanel was definitely on to something when she said, “the best things in life are free. The second best things are very expensive.” It’s a new year, and everybody, including Nigeria, is drawing a budget to make smarter decisions. One of the “smarter decisions” Nigeria is making is to allocate ₦12 bilion for the insurance of “sensitive items.”

In simple English, FG is trying to secure financial protection for government properties, IT systems, and infrastructure that keep the country running—or stumbling, depending on the day of the week.

These assets, which are considered important in achieving national stability, are exposed to everything from natural disasters to vandalism and cyber-attacks. With the new billions allocated to this cause, anything that can break, burn, or be hacked is covered.

You didn’t ask, but if you were wondering what else is interesting in the “Budget of Restoration,” President Bola Tinubu also allocated trillions to other key sectors: ₦4.06 trillion for infrastructure (fingers crossed we’ll actually see it), ₦3.52 trillion for education, and ₦2.48 trillion for health.

It all sounds great on paper, but the question remains: can this budget really restore what’s been broken, or are we just insuring the cracks without fixing the foundation?

Why is this a big deal?

Speaking of “sensitive assets”, the national grid, for instance, has proven it deserves top-tier insurance. In 2024 alone, it collapsed 12 times and lost 128 transmission towers to vandalism. If this grid were a person, it’d need therapy and some blood tonic. With this ₦12 billion allocation, we expect that affliction will not arise for the 13th time in 2025.

In 2024, Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, tried to assure us that these outages aren’t entirely the grid’s fault and that sabotage and vandalism are the actual culprits. The same last year, Adelabu hinted at plans that would drive more security, community engagement, and stricter vandal penalties to protect the national grid. We never really got to see those plans kick off in 2024, but experts believe that the new allocation should sponsor it.

If the budget experts are right, we’re not mad at the ₦12 billion allocation. However, the vagueness of where the money is going makes us wonder if any real results will be traced back to the allocation, given Nigeria’s history of funds mismanagement. In the best-case scenario, this money would lead to tangible results like fewer national grid collapses. In the worst-case scenario, it will lead to someone’s middle-aged father saying a lot without saying anything. There are no spoilers yet, so we’ll see what happens in the next 11 months.

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Tinubu wants the kids to eat good

The Nigerian government has set aside ₦100 billion for the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) in the 2025 Appropriation Bill. Essentially, the money is supposed to kill two birds with one pot of stew—feed public primary school kids nutritious meals and boost local farmers’ income. Sounds like a win-win but this programme has a crazy history.

The NHGSFP isn’t new. It debuted in 2005 under President Olusegun Obasanjo with ambitious goals: get kids into classrooms, improve their grades with better nutrition, and ensure local farmers have guaranteed customers for their produce. Like almost everything else in Nigeria, things haven’t exactly gone as planned.

Fast-forward to the Buhari administration and the program turned into an episode of Who Wants to Be a Billionaire? ₦2.67 billion, meant for school meals during the COVID-19 lockdown, magically found its way into personal accounts. Vendors weren’t paid, food portions shrank to almost nothing, and students stopped coming to school when the meals dried up. At one point, some states even suspended the program due to complaints of bad food and irregular supplies.

Now, with ₦100 billion on the table, the government is hoping to revive the programme in 2025. This time, with more measurable goals – increase school enrollment by 20%, boost academic performance by 15%, and fatten local farmers’ wallets by 10%. Sounds like a pretty Specific, Measurable Achievable, and Time-bound (SMART) goal on paper, but the execution is what we’re not confident about.

Without proper monitoring, this money could easily end up as another “disappearing act” in the long Nigerian budget history. The NHGSFP has the potential to be a game-changer, especially now that some parents can no longer afford to feed their children.

When done right, it keeps kids in school, improves their performance, and stimulates the local economy. But after years of mismanagement, it’s hard not to be sceptical. If the government can finally serve this program without corruption, 2025 might just be the year the kids eat good—literally and figuratively.

Until then, we’ll just let Tinubu cook.

The Big Picks

NDLEA Arrests Business Woman, Nollywood Filmmaker For Alleged Illicit Shipments: The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) kicked off the New Year with a big catch, arresting 61-year-old Lagos socialite, Alhaja Aishat Feyisara Ajoke Elediye. She was picked up on New Year’s Day at her mansion in the Okota area of Lagos after her staff was caught with a truckload of alleged illicit drugs.

Military Considers Engaging Locally Fabricated Arms Manufacturers: The military has announced its commitment to cracking down on the production and circulation of illegal arms while also exploring ways to harness the skills of law-abiding citizens involved in manufacturing locally-made firearms and military-grade equipment.