According to the Nigeria Social Cohesion Survey 2025 report by the Africa Polling Institute (API), there is increasing distrust by the citizens and low-levels of public trust in government and public institutions to the point that there is a lack of confidence in performance of government and its institutions. The poll showed that 83 per cent of Nigerians had little or no confidence in the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; and 82 per cent had the same feeling about National Assembly led by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio; House of Representatives Speaker, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas. In addition, 79 per cent also reported that they did not have much or no trust to the court under the leadership of the former CJN, Justice Kayode Ariwoola, and the new CJN, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun.
Compared to the past releases (2019, 2021, and 2022), the figures indicate that the trust and confidence levels of citizens were down to the lowest levels. Weak state of social cohesion in Nigeria was also reported by the API report released at the weekend in Abuja, as the index indicated 46.8 per cent. The survey also revealed that Nigerians were now apparently united in common struggle particularly regarding their daily lives, and the adverse effect of the economic realities as they always mention the hard economic times, high prices of transport and goods and services, and economic prosperity under the Tinubu economy.
In association with Ford Foundation, API carried out some citizens perception survey (CPS) in all parts of Nigeria to check the social cohesion situation in Nigeria between January and February 2025. One of the ways in which the study has conducted a total of 5,465 interviews (through face-to-face household interviews of citizens, 15 years and above) is through the Stratified Random Sampling technique. Interviews were done largely in five major languages, English, pidgin, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba; and geographic quotas were set to ascertain that all the states and senatorial districts were evenly represented in the sample In a survey in 2025, key findings attributed that 53 per cent of the Nigerians are disappointed in Nigeria.