Human rights lawyer and activist, Inibehe Effiong, has warned that Nigeria’s growing culture of naming public assets after President Bola Tinubu could spiral into absurdity, saying the country may one day be renamed the “Federal Republic of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
Speaking during an interview on ARISE News, Effiong criticised the recent decision by the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, to rename the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway after the President.
He argued that the move reflects an unhealthy culture of excessive praise by government officials and recalled the speed with which the National Assembly restored Nigeria’s old national anthem.
He said, “which I have never understood the logic behind it; at a time the country is grappling with economic crisis, at a time that we are borrowing to refund our indebtedness, at a time that the government is almost running on a deficit.
“Why are we decipating trillions without transparency, don’t forget the company that is handling this road projects is one whose antecedents has been called to question. So when when you look at it in the light of the renaming, the way we are going, given how dubious the national assembly changed our national anthem within 24 hours, we may wake up tomorrow and it becomes Federal Republic of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
Effiong described the increasing trend of renaming public infrastructure after the President as “unbridled sycophancy,” questioning whether appointees and federal institutions were now competing to outdo one another in praising Tinubu.
“It’s unbridled sycophancy. Is there a competition between appointees of the President and federal institutions over who is going to praise the President the most?” he asked.
The lawyer also explained that while the executive has the authority to rename public infrastructure that is not protected by statute, institutions whose names are established by legislation cannot be changed through executive action.
“There are public infrastructures or institutions whose names are statutory. Where Parliament has assigned a name through legislation, you cannot rename such institutions through executive fiat. But where there is no statutory backing, the executive has the discretion to ascribe a name.”
Although he acknowledged that the law permits the executive to rename certain projects, Effiong maintained that taxpayer-funded infrastructure should not bear the name of a serving President, insisting that public assets belong to the Nigerian people rather than any individual in office.
