President Bola Tinubu on Thursday declared that Nigeria had passed through the process of painful reforms, and that prosperity would follow next for the nation and its citizens.
Tinubu made the declaration in his Independence Day message to mark the country’s 66th anniversary, titled “From Reform to Prosperity”, in which he defended the economic policies of his administration and urged Nigerians to stay the course.
He said, “The age of reform has done its work. Now begins the age of prosperity,” he said.
Tinubu urged Nigerians to look ahead rather than reconsider the sacrifices associated with the reforms, declaring that the country had “passed through our own Red Sea”.
“Our destination is in sight. Our foundations are strong. Our direction is clear. So let us go forward. No looking back,” Tinubu added.
He declared that Nigeria had reached a “turning point,” saying the painful economic reform phase was over and that the country had entered a new “age of prosperity” focused on reducing the cost of living, creating jobs and ensuring that the benefits of economic growth were widely shared.
Tinubu said the reforms undertaken since his assumption of office had corrected the country’s economic direction, describing them as painful but necessary treatment for longstanding structural problems.
Using a cancer patient as an analogy, the President said Nigeria had for too long treated the symptoms of its economic problems rather than confronting their underlying causes.
“By 2023, poverty was rising, and hope was nearly gone. The country’s situation was darker than ever. We had no choice but to act,” he said.
Tinubu said previous administrations had chosen “morphine” by sustaining inefficient arrangements and postponing difficult decisions, while his administration chose to “excise the cancer”.
He acknowledged that the reforms had produced painful “side effects”, but argued that the hardship should not be confused with the underlying economic problems they were designed to address.
“Our reforms did not create the weaknesses in our economy. They confronted them,” he said, while warning against attempts to reverse the policies and return to what he described as the “abuse of addictive subsidies”.
According to him, three and a half years into his administration, economic indicators showed that the reforms were yielding results.
He said the economy had grown by more than four per cent this year, with both the oil and non-oil sectors contributing to what he described as a period of stable growth.
Tinubu also cited reduced oil theft, a substantial fall in inflation from its peak, rebuilt foreign reserves and a more stable foreign exchange market as evidence of progress.
He said Nigeria recorded its highest-ever non-oil export revenue in 2025, exceeding $6 billion.
“These are not idle claims. International observers, journalists, NGOs and multilateral institutions can see the change,” he said, adding that foreign direct investment continued to rise.
Tinubu said the focus of his administration had now shifted from correcting the country’s economic course to delivering “shared and widespread prosperity”.
He said prosperity meant more than economic growth and improved statistics, but a country where farmers could produce more cheaply and earn decent returns, factories had reliable electricity, businesses could access credit, and young people could find productive employment.
He identified reducing the cost of living as the immediate priority of the new phase, saying the government would seek to achieve this by lowering the cost of producing and transporting goods.
He acknowledged that millions of Nigerians continued to struggle with food, education, healthcare and transportation costs.
He attributed the hardship to decades of low productivity, inadequate infrastructure, insufficient opportunity and weak institutions, saying the problems predated the reforms of his administration.
“We cannot erase in four years what accumulated over generations. But we can change its course. We can build an economy that steadily lifts people out of poverty while ensuring that those who remain vulnerable are not abandoned along the way,” he said.
“Our objective is not to manage poverty more efficiently. We will defeat it,” the President affirmed.
He acknowledged that achieving the goal would take time, discipline, sustained economic growth and the creation of millions of productive opportunities.
He maintained that Nigeria was entering the new phase from a stronger position because, in his assessment, the fundamental direction of the economy had been corrected.
(Ripples)
