Method and non-partisanship

LensSourcesScorecardsThen vs NowEconomist mapSimulatorContext packs

Our lens, and how we stay non-partisan

GPLab takes an explicit point of view. We pay close attention to incentives, price signals and hard budget constraints, and we ask what each policy rewards. This site sets out the evidence for every position, including ones that cut against that lens, so you can reach your own view. GPLab is not affiliated with any political party.

• We critique policies and their results, not people's character, and we do not back or attack any party or candidate.
• Every Then vs Now chapter carries a Lens / the other side box: our market-leaning reading next to the strongest fair counter-argument, from named economists and scholars, with sources. We do not write unsourced counterpoints.
• Facts and judgements are kept apart: the verdicts and the lens are labelled as ours, and every figure links to its source.
• Funding. GPLab is currently self-funded by its founders. We take no money from political parties, candidates or government bodies, and any future funders will be listed here. See Funding and independence.
• Spotted an error? Email [email protected].

Sources and standards

We do not invent any figures, quotes, headlines or citations. Archival images are real scans, never generated. New Nigerian quotations come from uncorrected OCR text in the New Nigerian Digital Archive; page images there were not accessible to us, so we link each page for checking. Web clippings are screenshots taken on 1 October 2026 and cropped to the headline. The 1972 and 1975 front pages are scans hosted on Wikimedia Commons and credited to the National Library of Nigeria; their copyright status is not settled. Every clipping on this site is credited and reproduced for editorial, non-commercial use only. Government scorecards and Then vs Now chapters come from our newspaper research file and keep its source list.

Commons scans cover roughly 1954 to 1975 only. The Daily Times digital archive is behind a subscription paywall, and we did not search the New York Times archive or West Africa magazine systematically. Some figures in the research notes are left off this site because they could not be checked against the original source. Scorecard sources sit at card level, so a single line is not tied to a single source.

Government scorecards: how to read them

A scorecard is a structured summary of one government's economic record. Every government from 1960 has a card. Twelve are scored (Tinubu's score is interim) and three held office too briefly and are marked Too short to score, with no score of any kind. The scoring method (v1.0, draft) and the full scores table are public; the weights were approved on 2 Oct 2026. Economic outcome scores are computed from data. Credibility, reforms and composite scores are drafts, open for public review: each scored card has a "Challenge this score" form, and an independent expert panel (§10) will follow.

Years and type

When the government held office, and whether it was military or civilian.

Finance ministers and CBN governors

The people holding those posts during the government's time in office.

Oil context

Annual average crude prices for the period (nominal US dollars).

Signature policy

The economic approach the government is best known for, in one or two sentences.

What worked and what backfired

Our reading of the record, drawn from the sources on the card. These are judgements, not scores.

Money: oil, naira, subsidy, debt

What happened on each of the four money questions the site tracks.

In plain English

A one-line summary for non-specialists.

Key actions

Dated decisions and reports, each with its own source.

Parallels

Links to other governments that faced the same problem or used the same tools.

Clippings

Front pages and documents from the archive, each credited to its outlet, date and holder.

Data years and overlaps

Annual series such as inflation, growth and the exchange rate (World Bank WDI, unless the chart says otherwise) are calendar-year figures. Each calendar year is assigned to one government for charts and links, usually the one in office for most of that year. When power changed hands during a year, that year's figure really belongs to both, so read handover years with care. Very short governments may have no full year of their own.

Sources

Sources sit at card level, listed at the foot of each scorecard. Key actions carry their own sources. Figures we could not check against an original source are left off.

Then vs Now and the "Same problem?" meter

Each Then vs Now chapter gets a verdict: did the same problem and the same response come back? The reasons and sources come from the chapter itself.

• Came back: Essentially the same problem and response came back.
• Partly: Same problem, but the tools or context changed materially.
• Changed: The problem recurred, but the response or outcome is now different.

The Lens / the other side box sets our reading against the strongest fair counter-argument (statist, developmental or left), each with named voices and sources. Quotes are verbatim; a few counter-sources were read via search summaries only, and their source titles say so.

Economist map

• Each placement needs at least one public statement we can quote and link to.
• The band reflects that statement on that issue only. People hold different views on different questions.
• We give no numeric scores. We do not think the evidence supports that much precision.
• Provisional placements are marked. Policymakers are labelled as policymakers. Roles were checked on 1 October 2026.

See the map →

Policy simulator

The simulator is an illustrative teaching game, not a forecast. Its rules and ranges were set by hand to follow the direction and rough scale of real, sourced episodes, but they were not estimated statistically. Missing starting values are shown as gaps, never filled in. Read every rule →

Diaspora context packs

Context for learning, not investment, tax or travel advice. Every fact carries the date it describes and a source link; gaps are listed on each pack.