The year 2025 has come and gone. Oh, there is the rest of today and tomorrow (Wednesday 31st December) still left. In our Nigeria, a lot can happen in twenty hours! But I hope whatever it is that happens in this left-over one day and a half would be for good and not for ill. My effort here is to try to recall some top issues that made headlines in 2025 and which, in my humble view, are worthy of note.
That worthiness could be due to its positive impact on society, the comic relief which the incident provided, the sheer foolishness it exposed or the ghastly crudity of what happened. All in my subjective view, to which I am entitled. I present them in no chronological order but merely in the order in which I recall as I engage my keyboard, after cleaning my compound following the RATELS’ inspiration of three days ago.
The Dangote triumph could not have come at a better time. Buffeted from all sides over several years and prevented from making the old refineries work, he took the bull by the horn and built the biggest single-train refinery and petrochemicals complex in Lagos. But those who have been benefitting from the criminal plundering of the nation’s wealth, through fuel importation by the 6th largest producer of crude petroleum globally, laid booby traps for the man, Aliko Dangote.
For someone who had invested twenty billion US dollars in this enterprise, going to sleep and watching his signature investment go to drain while indolent fat cats continue to enrich themselves was not part of his plan. He bared his fangs. He sorted the labour unions they planted and wanted to use as a plan B after the fake sulphur results ruse backfired; provided thousands of CNG-powered road tankers to ensure fuel delivery nationwide is unhampered by drivers and haulers whose loyalty lay elsewhere; took out the man at the tip of the pyramid of graft thereby sending a clear message that the days of his use of soft gloves are over! The fuel I bought at N739 per litre this yuletide was a huge relief though we expect further price drops before we can say eureka! However, we will be watching to make sure the monopoly hand is not overplayed to the detriment of the people. Let Farouk help by building his own refinery as soon as possible. We wait!
The former attorney general of the government that lived and breathed anti-corruption as its raison detre is currently entangled in a massive web of corruption, allegedly. The EFCC he wanted to create in his image and had put under his armpit before he left government in May 2023 are showing him his own report and it is not a pretty sight. The list and amounts involved are mind-boggling. Did the agency with the owl as its logo check the trails that might lead overseas? There is possible re-looting of returned loots, aloota continua – excuse my french! Has EFCC named him AG of Particular Concern – AGPC? We wait, hoping 2027 bargains do not sweep this, if true, under the massive carpet.
The Presidential support for Local Government autonomy has been one of the most praiseworthy of the Bola Tinubu presidency. Emasculated over the years through suffocating gubernatorial overlordship, the local governments became mere appendages of state governors. The so-called joint accounts were used by state governors to perpetuate their financial emasculation and the LGs left with mere crumbs to pay salaries with nothing left to carry out meaningful grassroots projects or even the sanitation role in their remit. That governors nationwide are still resisting the presidential order to give effect to the constitutional imperative at the third tier of government is baffling. The president should not relent. Electing competent hands into the councils, rather than errand boys, will also help this cause.
The VDM phenomenon is one of the most impactful, non-political, non-religious, non-ethnic-based youth organisations that has risen to prominence in Nigeria in 2025. No, it is not an organisation, it is a movement! Some big players in Nigeria’s polity may not have noticed this phenomenon because it is solely organising through social media – Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok. Voluntary, with no registration and anyone who calls himself a RATEL, the name of the followers of the VDM ethos, is accepted as one. They do have some creeds that Martins Vinvent Otse (Very Dark Man) expouses: fight for the downtrodden, give justice to the oppressed, integrity in all you do, expose corruption, help the forsaken where you can, educate the youth and open their eyes to critical imperatives of society, voluntary service to improve the community.
The achievement of VDM and his Ratel Movement has been phenomenal. Youths are being mobilized without giving them money. The youths are spending their own money to make things happen nationwide. The two monthly community cleaning exercises they did in November and December have been successful beyond expectations across the country. The main end-of-year party that rounded up the cleaning exercise took place Kaspaland at MKO Stadium environs, Abuja. With thousands of youths in attendance, free entry, water sports in the lake, budding musicians like Koko Pee and VDM himself playing, four cows slaughtered to make suya and served to all free of charge, this was the most impactful youth gathering in Nigeria in 2025! Measured on the basis of altruism, values, engagement, call to genuine patriotism and bridging of divides among the youth. No cases of untoward incidents were reported in spite of that massive crowd!
The National Assembly had three major “achievements” in 2025. The fast-track approvals of loans from the presidency; the Natasha suppression imbroglio; the bow-and-go clearance of a mixed bag of ambassadorial nominees. Of course, sending massive prayers to inboxes must have taken place in camera! The Natasha show of capacity and compassion for her constituents made many senators look puny and un-senatorial in their districts. Some constituents in my Edo South Senatorial district of residence considered relocating to Kogi Central while a few kept asking if it is possible to get Natasha to represent them in the next election! Senator Natasha Akopti-Uduaghan’s empowerment projects dwarf what her governor did in eight years. Seeing her land in a helicopter when her adversaries had blocked land routes to her constituency was a statement of never-say-die spirit!
The Wike’dness in Rivers State played out in so many dramatic ways in 2025. From the clipping of the wings of the elected governor, the pulling down of the house of assembly building, the saving of a governor through a state of emergency that suspended his mandate, the simultaneous suspension of those who thought they will benefit from the SOE, the return of the Sim card to a wrong phone, etc etc. This peace we thought had come appears to be wearing a porcupine skin. Both combatants will be crossing over into the new year with one eye perpetually open and with a dagger held under their duvets. I suspect both combatants have sent congratulatory messages to Ibok-Ete Ibas on his ambassadorial appointment!
Pastor Okafor is allegedly keeping one eye on VDM and slanting the other towards the diagonal direction of the ex-wives, children, deaconesses and choristers. Carnal accusations pour forth and all attempts at defence are met with further lurid revelations by the irrepressible leader of the Ratels movement. A major beneficiary of this 2025 battle that may well be carried into 2026 are likely to be DNA laboratories. They may be summoned to arbitrate these sordid sexual escapades in the temple of the most-high. The humongous amount of data spent on these issues on social media benefits the telcos so much that I wonder if they sometimes fuel controversies as a sales strategy!
One that would have been most hilarious, if not for its existential implications, was the Nobel Prize-deserving revelation by a former minister of defence, no less, that Nigeria has forests that bombs cannot penetrate! Some Nigerians laughed, many expressed consternation, yet others wept. Only the bandits and terrorists smirked in satisfaction at the well-delivered line that served their purpose. It was good riddance to bad rubbish in 2025. Trump appears to have proved this rabbit-brained theory wrong in every material particular. The current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue appears to be forcing changes to happen here of recent.
Super Falcons Okoronkwo with a lethal left leg, and her teammates showed Morocco that the miracle of Dammam of 1989 was not a fluke. They came from 2-0 down to down their Moroccan opponents and bring home the WAFCON trophy for the 10th time. Mission X accomplished. Beating that team of 11 and their laser light throwers on the stands on their home soil made our joy full indeed. To the Super Eagles, while wishing them well at AFCON 2025 in Morocco, their failure to get World Cup qualification on the pitch, which made NFF to become a disruptive petitioner, left a sour taste in our mouths in 2025.
It took Esan people of Edo State their own self-help efforts to build a Mobile Police Facility while the district was in dire straits in the hands of bandits and kidnappers this year. This did not paint the federal government in glowing colours in 2025. Happily, a lot of our sons and daughters rose to the challenge and built from scratch the buildings now housing Mopol Squadron 82 at Uromi. Housing quarters are currently under construction in addition to the accommodation, vehicles, power and water provided by worthy sons and daughters of Esanland. The State Governor also presented seven operations vehicles to the Squadron recently. The officers and men of the squadron have been made very comfortable by the community; it is hoped they would make Esan uncomfortable for the criminals.
Anthony Joshua, the former World Heavy Weight Champion, who crushed the jaws of a loquacious opponent recently, just narrowly missed death by whiskers on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Thank God he survived, but his two friends did not. May their souls rest in peace. The incidence threw open the gap in our emergency preparedness as a nation once again. Ambulance and other health services are still in short supply here. The service quality, when one is found, can be abysmal. It is sad that in 2025, that is still where we are, attempting to pray our way out of challenges we have been blessed with the resources to resolve. Meanwhile, individuals steal billions that they cannot spend in their miserable lifetime.
Have a happy new year. What else can I say?
*Benin City. 30th December 2025.*
Gatekeepers News is not liable for opinions expressed in this article; they’re strictly the writer’s
