Senator Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni (Lagos Central) has expressed confidence that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will win a second term, arguing that his economic reforms have laid a solid foundation for the country’s future.
In an interview, the former Lagos Deputy Speaker, council chairman and party secretary defended the administration’s record on budgets, infrastructure, fuel subsidy removal and security. He also addressed Lagos’s push for special status and the debate over state police.
Budget cycle “on course”
Asked about the overlap of three budgets, Eshinlokun-Sanni said the National Assembly had worked to harmonise them. Projects not completed in 2024 were rolled into 2025, and unfinished items were carried forward. The capital component of the 2025 and 2026 budgets is still being implemented and ends this month, he said, while recurrent spending ended in December 2025. He added that the Federal Government is already mobilising and paying contractors.
Federal projects in Lagos
The senator said Lagos has benefited significantly under Tinubu, noting that no major bridge in the state has been left untouched. He cited rehabilitation of Eko Bridge and Third Mainland Bridge, and ongoing work on Carter Bridge up to Ojoro. He also pointed to the coastal road, which he said is now widely used and praised even by early critics. Other projects he listed include the Badagry-Sokoto highway, the expansion of the Lagos-Oyo road and a new airport for Lagos.
Special status and derivation
Responding to claims that Lagos lawmakers have gone quiet on special status because the President hails from the state, the senator said the issue has been raised on the floor of the National Assembly. He said he has sponsored a proposal for Lagos to receive derivation from federal revenue collected in the state, including from Customs, the Nigerian Ports Authority, NIMASA and the education tax. He proposed a 13 per cent share, arguing that the sums involved would exceed any special-status funds.
He argued that Lagos deserves special treatment as the nation’s commercial hub, comparing it to Dubai in the UAE, New York in the United States and London in Britain. Such investment, he said, would spill over to other cities and ultimately benefit the Federal Government.
Subsidy: “The opposition is being mischievous”
Eshinlokun-Sanni accused opposition figures of exploiting the subsidy issue. He said presidential candidates in 2022 and 2023, including Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, had publicly agreed that subsidy must go. According to him, the 2023 budget made no provision for subsidy beyond June, meaning it had effectively been removed before Tinubu took office.
He recalled that 22 states were unable to pay salaries in 2023 and that the Federal Government was in poor financial shape, adding that foreign reserves were found to be under $3 billion, not the $23 billion previously believed. Subsidy, he said, had become unsustainable and was fuelling corruption and cross-border fuel smuggling.
He said states and local governments now receive larger allocations and should be held accountable for how they spend them. The economy, he said, is more stable and predictable than in 2023, though 2023 to 2024 was “very hard.” He also criticised the past foreign exchange regime, alleging that allocations from the Central Bank allowed insiders to profit through arbitrage.
Recalling an encounter with a Nigerian businessman in Houston in 2024, he said the advice was to stay the course on reforms, warning that reversing them would make any restart harder. He credited the student loan scheme NELFUND with widening access to higher education.
Security: “Everybody should be their brother’s keeper”
On insecurity ahead of the elections, the senator urged citizens to report suspicious movements and not to harbour insurgents. He called for greater investment in equipment and intelligence for security agencies and expressed confidence that “sooner or later, the battle will be won.”
State police
Eshinlokun-Sanni backed state police, noting that federal systems such as the United States have them. He acknowledged the risk of abuse by politicians but said strong institutions can address it. He proposed clear rules on training, promotion and jurisdiction, with state forces handling concurrent and residual matters and the Federal Police taking over in cross-border or escalated cases.
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