It is the recurring question in markets, on street corners, and in the quiet quarters of our neighborhoods: “What has this government done to deserve a second term?” To the casual observer, the answer might seem elusive, clouded by the daily struggle. However, a deeper look at the current administration reveals a nation where the motors of development have been set to high speed; the challenge is that many citizens have yet to realized they are already on the road to recovery.

Central to the President’s strategy is the decentralization of power, most notably through Local Government financial autonomy. For decades, the grassroots remained parched while state capitals held the hose. Today, the administration has ensured that funds flow directly to local administrations.

However, a crisis of paucity of information spread persists. In communities like Rigasa, we see that when there is a lack of electricity or infrastructure, the instinct is to blame the central government in Abuja. We forget that the councilor and local government chairmen are the closest custodians of our welfare. If the central government is pumping money into these local pockets, the failure of a road or a transformer is a local conversation, not a national one.

During a recent observation of a community in Cross- River State, I watched farmers struggle to move produce through marshy, impassable roads. It was a heart-wrenching sight, but it also highlighted a missing ingredient in our democracy: Self-Advocacy.

Problems in Nigeria are best solved at the Ward level. If farmers and residents organized themselves to march not to a distant state capital, but to their local government office to demand their rights and state the economic benefits of a repaired road, the speed of development would triple. We must stop looking up to the clouds for rain when the tap is right in our backyard.

In a recent discussion with a university proprietor, the disparity between policy impact and public perception became glaringly clear. We discussed initiatives like NELFUND (The Nigerian Education Loan Fund) and the TVET program.

The numbers are staggering. While previous administrations of Jonathan are still praised for Youwin programs that captured only 5,000 people, NELFUND has already impacted over 2 million lives in Nigerian universities. Yet, many eligible students know nothing about it. As the proprietor noted, the government “no put am for head” meaning the passion for publication does not match the passion for implementation.

The TVET program, for instance, provides trainers with ₦45,000 and students with ₦25,500 monthly stipends. Yet, technical glitches, payment delays (sometimes once in six months), and a lack of localized center selection have discouraged students who struggle with transportation costs. These are not failures of intent, but failures of passionate labor.

The harvest of welfare packages ranging from ₦10 million loans for academic and non-academic staff to the groundbreaking agreements with ASUU is the most robust we have seen since independence. But a policy that remains a secret is a policy that does not exist to the common man.

The administration needs passionate laborers to man the affairs of public information. We must utilize existing structures. Beneficiaries of NELFUND and TVET which are the Undergraduates (100, 200, 300, or 400 level) can be engaged as media enthusiasts, two undergraduate from each local government can be selected across the 774 local government or one each in 8,809 wards to serve as policy promoters and boost their morale with a monthly payment of ₦20,000 since most of these policies and programs are for the youths. Our opposition has captured most of the youths online for just as little as ₦2,000.

President Tinubu has proven to be a community-driven leader, a trait honed during his tenure in Lagos, the much recent local government financial autonomy and also the SSA to all the six geopolitical zone in Nigeria for grassroot engagement. He has built the engine, fueled it, and cleared the path through decentralization. However, for the ordinary man to truly enjoy the benefits of democracy, the government must invest as much in Media and Aggressive Publication as it does in the policies themselves.

Nigeria does not just need policies; it needs messengers. It needs laborers who will take the good news of these interventions to the wards, the farms, and the lecture halls. Only then will the harvest be fully gathered.

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Bamidele Atoyebi is the Convener of BAT Ideological Group, National Coordinator of Accountability and Policy Monitoring and a publisher at Unfiltered and Mining Reporting