Give time a chance: The silent partner in growth
In a world obsessed with speed, “give time a chance” sounds almost countercultural. We celebrate quick wins, overnight success, and fast growth but often forget that time is not just a background element. Time is a revealer. A refiner. A truth-teller.
Time always tells.
It tells in business. The companies that boom overnight are exciting, but the ones that last those are the ones built with time in mind. Time exposes shaky foundations, reveals misaligned values, and tests whether a business model is truly sustainable. Likewise, time rewards consistency, clarity, and quiet diligence. It’s why the businesses that compound slowly often grow deeper roots and greater resilience.
Time tells in people. You can meet someone once and be impressed, inspired even but it’s time that unveils character. Time exposes whether someone’s leadership is performative or principled and whether their growth is fake or true . It also reveals whether they’re committed to the long haul, or just passing through.
It tells in companies too. The sheen of a great brand, a viral launch, or bold positioning is never enough. Time will reveal whether culture is healthy or toxic. Whether innovation is real or reactive. Whether vision is baked into the DNA or simply a pitch deck performance.
That’s why we must respect time; in the moment, in history, and in the uncertainty of the future.
Respect time in the moment: Understand that the present is the seedbed of the future. What seems small and unnoticeable now through an idea, a habit, a conversation may be the very thing time will magnify. Be mindful. Be diligent. Be intentional with every hour.
Respect time in history: Look back, see the patterns, the signs, the stories of those who walked the road before you. Time holds memory and it holds lessons that, if honoured, can help you avoid cycles, refine your thinking, and build wiser.
Respect time in its uncertain future: The future is not promised, yet it is shaped by what we do today. That tension is not meant to scare us, but to keep us humble. To remind us that control is an illusion, but preparation is wisdom. Faith, hope, and strategy—those are the tools we can carry forward into time's unknown.
So pause and ask yourself:
What am I rushing through that actually needs more time?
What am I building today that I want time to tell well tomorrow?
What am I learning from the past that can help me be a better steward of time now?
Because in the end, everything worth building is revealed over time.
Give it a chance.
This is a reminder to me and to anyone else who needs it.
Buhari, the Burden of Power, and… maybe the Kindness We Never Saw.
What if Buhari wasn’t trying to be loved but to carry out the hard, thankless work no one else dared to do? I still wrestle with his failures- economic hardship, repression, and disconnection but watching his daughter speak of his kindness made me ask: can a man be gentle in private and ruthless in power? This is my attempt to make sense of the paradox.
Being a political leader often means making peace with being hated — sometimes by an entire nation.
Since Former President Buhari passed on July 13, 2025, I’ve grappled with the deep contradictions of his eight-year tenure. On one hand, a stern disciplinarian and anti-corruption crusader; on the other, an authority whose policies spawned pain and disillusionment for many. I’ve found myself reflecting more deeply than I ever expected. Like many Nigerians, I’ve had my share of disappointment, and scepticism about his leadership ( Since my nuance on leadership has changed, I even say that very lightly… This is for another blogpost). But watching his daughter’s BBC tribute full of tenderness and admiration, it unearthed a different question for me:
How can someone so kind in private lead with such harshness in public?
I’m not writing this to glorify a presidency that left so many in pain. I remember the crushing inflation, the broken promises, the silence during #EndSARS that blew up around the world in which I led the west midlands protest. The closed borders that hurt everyday businesses more than smugglers. I, too, from diaspora watched as the naira collapsed, as youth unemployment soared, and as we seemed to move further from economic dignity.
Photo Credit: Adejuwon Adesope
But I also can’t ignore the possibility that Buhari may have seen his leadership not as a popularity contest but as a kind of sacrifice. Some Nigerians living in Nigeria may call me naiive but this is where I am at.
A President of Stark Contradictions
Let’s be honest: Buhari’s tenure from 2015 to 2023 was rough. We had two recessions, record inflation and public debt ballooning from ₦12 trillion to over ₦77 trillion, unemployment hitting 33%, the currency plummeting ( Good old ₦250-£1 days) , and insecurity that never really let up. Boko Haram still haunted the north, banditry spread and fear became rampant in the country and you could argue this caused national fatigue and mass migration begun.
His policies, while often well-intentioned, sometimes felt detached from the real Nigerian experience. The Treasury Single Account (TSA) saved trillions, yes. But to the woman selling tomatoes in Ojuelegba, or the fresh graduate hustling for a tech job in Yaba, those savings didn’t buy bread.
Even Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign, though symbolically powerful, often felt selective. His silence during the Lekki Toll Gate shootings will forever be a stain many Nigerians cannot forgive.
If we were to get even more deep into the policies we will find some failures too deep to ignore
Failures That Shaped Daily Life for Millions
Cabinet delays & missteps: For five months, critical governance was stalled. The poorly-chosen cabinet earned Buhari the nickname “Baba Go Slow”; in some cases, deceased figures were even appointed to boards The GuardianAl Jazeera.
Economic crises two recessions: Nigeria endured severe stagflation in 2016 and again in 2020, triggered by oil price collapse, delayed policies, and the COVID‑19 pandemic. Growth remained feeble, real income fell, and poverty deepened .
Debt explosion & inflation: From ₦42 trillion in 2015 to ₦77 trillion in 2023, public debt nearly doubled. Debt servicing ratios soared from 29% to 96% of revenue. Meanwhile, inflation climbed from 8.7% to over 22% and unemployment from under 8% to over 33% The Budgit Foundation+1Western Post+1.
Currency and forex mismanagement: Multiple exchange-rate regimes, strict capital controls, and policies like land border closures strained trade, sparked food inflation, and dampened foreign investment. The naira lost approximately 70% of its value against the dollar Western Post+2Al Jazeera+2African Eye Report+2.
Security failures and repression: Despite promises to defeat Boko Haram and end banditry, violence persisted. His government’s handling of the EndSARS protests in 2020 drew backlash when soldiers killed at least twelve protesters. Buhari’s administration also banned Twitter (X) for seven months, raising human rights concerns African Leadership Magazine+3AP News+3The Portfolio Magazine+3.
Selective anti-corruption: Critics allege Buhari’s anti-graft campaign disproportionately targeted political opponents, while corruption continued unabated in some elite circles Wikipedia+3Wikipedia+3African Leadership Magazine+3.
Border closure fallout: The 2019 land border closure aimed to curb smuggling and protect local producers but instead raised food costs and breached Nigeria’s promises under the African Continental Free Trade Area and ECOWAS Al Jazeera.
On Reddit, many Nigerians expressed frustration with the harsh economic fallout:
“Devaluation just widened the gap between the rich and everyone else… Without wage adjustments… savings wiped out” Al JazeeraReddit.
“Nigeria Under Buhari has a score of 24 [in Corruption Perception Index]; ironically, the score was better at 26 in 2015” thetimes.co.uk+4Reddit+4Reddit+4.
And yet, there was more to the story.
The Things We Didn’t See (Or Didn’t Want To)
It’s easy to focus only on what went wrong. But Buhari also did things that no other politician before him could, or would do:
He pushed forward Nigeria’s most ambitious infrastructure drive in decades. The Lagos–Ibadan railway and launched major road, bridge, and rail projects including the Abuja–Kaduna rail and the Second Niger Bridge
He brought discipline to public finance through the TSA and IPPIS systems, which reportedly saved taxpayers roughly ₦5.2 trillion by early 2017
He made reclaiming stolen public assets central to his presidency - his government recovered over USD 300 million linked to the Abacha era, and prosecuted over 600 public figures including judges and military chiefs. This is no small feat in a country where corruption often hides in plain sight.
Buhari ratified the Paris Agreement in 2017 and signed climate legislation in 2021; later, he unveiled Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan aimed at net-zero emissions by 2060- This was bold for the time if you ask me.
These weren’t shiny headlines, but they were structural moves what I now call the dirty work of nation-building. The kind of thankless, invisible labour that rarely wins hearts but can, if done right can shift futures. Maybe what Tinubu seems to be moving started with Buhari’s moves.
A Martyr or a Mistake?
There’s a line I keep coming back to: What if Buhari had to be the one who took the fall so that something more innovative, more people-centred, could come after him?
I’m not trying to redeem his legacy. I still believe he failed in many ways. His style of governance often felt cold and distant. His refusal to adapt, his slowness to act, and his lack of emotional intelligence in moments of national trauma left scars.
But I also think he may have chosen the burden of being misunderstood. Of holding the line in places others were too afraid to touch. Perhaps he believed that posterity would one day understand. That a nation built on sentiment and corruption needed a reset, even if the surgery was painful.
So, What Do We Do With His Legacy?
We hold both truths.
We mourn the opportunities lost and acknowledge the systems he helped reset.
We critique the suffering his policies caused and reflect on the foundations he laid.
We wrestle with how someone so reportedly kind in private could lead with such public ruthlessness.
That’s the paradox of power. And that’s Nigeria, a country constantly caught between its potential and its pain.
Buhari wasn’t the saviour many hoped for. But maybe, just maybe, he was the reluctant soldier doing the work no one wanted to do, hoping others would one day build on it with more heart, more grace, and more empathy.
And maybe, that's the hardest kind of leadership of all.
RIP President Muhammadu Buhari