President Bola Tinubu has compared Nigeria’s economic condition when he assumed office in 2023 to a seriously ill patient, saying his administration chose difficult reforms instead of continuing policies he described as temporary solutions.
Tinubu made the comparison on Thursday during his nationwide broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary.
The President said Nigeria was facing severe economic difficulties when his administration took office, arguing that previous governments had relied for too long on measures that addressed immediate symptoms without tackling deeper structural problems.
“By 2023, Nigeria was like a sick patient who receives the terrible news that he has cancer,” Tinubu said.
Using the medical analogy, he described the reforms introduced by his administration as a form of difficult treatment that could produce painful side effects but, in his assessment, was necessary to address longstanding weaknesses in the economy.
“For too long, Nigeria’s leaders chose morphine while praying for a miracle that never came,” he said.
Tinubu said past policies had allowed inefficient economic arrangements to continue at significant cost while difficult decisions were repeatedly deferred.
He argued that his administration took a different approach by pursuing reforms intended to address those underlying problems, including the removal of the petrol subsidy and changes to the foreign exchange system.
The President acknowledged that the reforms had created hardships for Nigerians but maintained that the difficulties should not be confused with the underlying problems his government was attempting to address.
“Our reforms did not create the weaknesses in our economy. They confronted them,” Tinubu said.
He also defended the direction of his administration, saying Nigeria had reached a turning point after more than three years of reforms.
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According to Tinubu, the government’s next priority is to translate the economic changes into broader prosperity, including lower production and transportation costs, more jobs, stronger industries and improved opportunities for young Nigerians.
He said the government would focus on areas including agriculture, infrastructure, industrial development, digital connectivity, skills development and support for businesses.
Tinubu also said his administration was strengthening social support programmes for vulnerable Nigerians, including improvements to the National Social Register and access to education financing through the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.
The President maintained that Nigeria could not reverse the reform programme and urged citizens to look ahead to what he described as an “age of prosperity.”
His Independence Day address came as Nigeria marked 66 years of independence, with the President presenting the economic reforms of his administration as part of a longer-term effort to change the country’s economic direction.