A growing wave of public distrust and civic disillusionment is sweeping across Nigeria, according to the 2025 Nigeria Social Cohesion Survey conducted by the Africa Polling Institute (API).
The report paints a grim picture of national unity and public confidence, exposing how citizens’ trust in democratic institutions and governance has eroded to historic lows.
The poll, released over the weekend in Abuja, indicates that an overwhelming 83% of Nigerians have little or no trust in the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
This disenchantment extends to the legislative arm, with 82% expressing similar sentiments towards the National Assembly under Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas.
Equally alarming is the crisis of confidence in Nigeria’s judiciary. Nearly 79% of respondents say they no longer trust the country’s legal system, whether under the leadership of former Chief Justice Kayode Ariwoola or the newly appointed Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun.
Comparative data from previous API editions in 2019, 2021, and 2022 reveal that this year’s figures represent the lowest levels of trust recorded to date. The trend, according to analysts, signals a growing disconnect between Nigerians and the institutions meant to serve them.
Perhaps most revealing is the survey’s Social Cohesion Index, which fell to 46.8%, indicating a fragile and weakening sense of unity among the Nigerian populace. The report suggests that while ethnic, religious, and regional divisions persist, Nigerians are now bound more by a shared experience of economic hardship than by any form of national solidarity.
From food inflation to skyrocketing transport fares and widespread unemployment, citizens across the country report that life under the current economic structure has grown increasingly unbearable. This widespread financial strain, the report says, is fast becoming the country’s most unifying factor.
API’s Executive Director, Professor Bell Ihua, noted:
“the state of social cohesion in Nigeria is under threat, not from insurgency or secession, but from the erosion of public trust and economic marginalisation.”
Backed by the Ford Foundation, the API deployed a Citizens’ Perception Survey (CPS) across the country between January and February 2025.
The survey team conducted 5,465 face-to-face interviews using stratified random sampling. Participants aged 15 and above were interviewed in five major languages; English, Pidgin, Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba across all states and senatorial districts to ensure national representation.
The findings, while bleak, have ignited calls for urgent reforms in leadership, governance transparency, and inclusive economic policies.
“The people are not just hungry,” one analyst noted at the unveiling of the report. “They feel unheard, unrepresented, and abandoned by the very system meant to protect and empower them.”
Observers warn that if Nigeria’s leadership fails to heed these warning signs, the fragile threads of unity may continue to fray.
