When Muhammadu Buhari took office in 2015, he inherited a nation teetering on the edge of both digital promise and infrastructural chaos. Over the next eight years, his administration would tout a digital economy agenda, rename ministries, push policy blueprints, and ban social platforms, all while the South-East and South-South watched from the sidelines, often with more questions than benefits.
For young tech builders in Aba, Asaba, Uyo, and Enugu, the Buhari era was a mixed bag. On one hand, there was talk of progress. On the other hand, there was a growing awareness that “national development” often meant “centre-focused.”
The digital policy push: Who benefited?
In 2019, Buhari renamed the Ministry of Communications to include “Digital Economy” and appointed Isa Pantami as minister. That move came with ambitious frameworks like the:
- National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS 2020–2030)
- National Broadband Plan (2020–2025)
Yet for founders in cities like Owerri or Warri, the promises remained mostly on paper. While internet penetration rose from 38% in 2015 to over 45% by 2023, the benefits were concentrated in urban centres.
Broadband rollout in the South-East and South-South remained sluggish. Many areas still experience very poor connectivity, expensive data, and inconsistent power, all critical barriers to tech development.
Talent pipelines with broken links
Under Buhari, programs such as Npower, Digital Nigeria, and Tech4Dev’s Basic Digital Skills Training were launched to equip young Nigerians with digital skills. But here’s the problem: many of these programs were hard to access for youths in the South-East and South-South. Either they weren’t advertised well in these areas, or the execution was Lagos and Abuja-centric.
Training centres were limited. Outreach was weak. And the few bootcamps that did occur in the region lacked continuity. As one developer in Port Harcourt put it: “We get trained for 3 weeks, then what? No jobs, no mentors, no roadmap.”
Infrastructure gaps that slowed the dream
Aba is full of scrappy innovators. Enugu is buzzing with students-turned-startup-founders. Yet these local ecosystems never got the infrastructural love they needed under Buhari’s watch.
There were attempts at broadband expansion, but fibre rollouts barely touched towns outside state capitals. Electricity remained unstable. Coworking spaces struggled with diesel costs. And many promising startups either shut down or migrated out, not because they weren’t good, but because the soil they were growing in wasn’t fertile.
Startups survived despite limited federal support
To be honest, the Nigerian tech space did grow during Buhari’s tenure. Startups raised billions, unicorns were born, and ecosystems matured.
But how many of these wins came from the Southeast or South-South?
Except for a few outliers, most major funding went to Lagos-based startups. The Nigeria Startup Act (2022), one of the administration’s proudest tech achievements, lacked strong regional inclusivity in its rollout. State-level adoption has been slow, and most founders in the East and South complain that the act still feels theoretical.
The result? A growing divide. While Lagos became the poster child for African tech, other regions like Abia, Delta, and Cross River were left hustling for scraps, not from a lack of ideas, but from a lack of attention.
Then the Twitter ban…
In June 2021, the Buhari administration banned Twitter. For many small business owners and digital creatives in the South-East and South-South, where Instagram and Twitter serve as marketing lifelines, this was more than an inconvenience. It was economic sabotage.
The 222-day ban was a stark reminder that the government’s digital policy goals were often at odds with the lived digital realities of its citizens. The ban disproportionately hurt regions already struggling for visibility in national media and commerce.
What did we learn?
We learned that national policy isn’t national if it doesn’t touch every region.
We learned that regional development requires intentional inclusion, not just “pilot programs” and buzzword-laced documents. We learned that tech can’t thrive in silos, and if Nigeria truly wants a digital future, it must cultivate that future outside of Lagos, too.
Numbers that matter
- Broadband penetration: ~45% in 2023, with the lowest reach in rural South-East/South-South
- Startup funding in Nigeria (2015–2023): Over \$4 billion raised, <5% traceable to South-East or South-South ventures
- Electricity access: National average ~56%, but many South-South communities fall below 40%
- Adoption of the Nigerian Startup Act by subnational governments in the East/South: 3 states as of early 2024
What comes next?
The end of Buhari’s era offers a reset, not just in policy, but in perspective.
If new leaders are serious about inclusive innovation, they must:
- Decentralised digital infrastructure projects
- Engage founders and innovators in the East/South from day one
- Make grants and training schemes more accessible to these regions
- Highlight success stories beyond Lagos.
Because innovation doesn’t live in one postcode. And neither should policy.
A legacy that’s… complicated
Buhari didn’t revolutionise Nigerian tech. But he didn’t destroy it either. His administration gave structure, then occasionally shook that structure with unpredictability. He let innovation breathe, but never fully embraced the culture around it.
His legacy in tech is like an app with great UI but buggy performance. It launched, it served a purpose, but it crashed at crucial moments.
What we take from it
What’s clear is that Nigeria’s tech scene grew despite the government as much as because of it. Founders hustled, raised funds, hired teams, and launched startups while dodging policy uncertainties and regulatory chaos. They organised themselves. They did the work.
So maybe that’s Buhari’s real legacy, a tech ecosystem that learned to stand on its own. That got tired of waiting for rescue. That got loud, got strategic, and began to demand better.
There’s still a long way to go. But we’re walking it, with or without government approval.
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