By Mary Onyia
President Bola Tinubu has declared that Nigeria has emerged from the era of painful economic reforms and entered a new “age of prosperity”, insisting that the difficult decisions taken by his administration have corrected the country’s economic direction and laid the foundation for lasting growth.
In his 66th Independence Day address, titled “From Reform to Prosperity,” Tinubu said the economy had grown by more than four per cent in 2026, while inflation had fallen substantially, foreign reserves had been rebuilt, the foreign exchange market stabilised and oil theft reduced. He also said non-oil export revenue exceeded $6 billion in 2025, describing it as Nigeria’s highest ever.
Defending the reforms, the President likened Nigeria’s pre-2023 economic condition to a cancer patient requiring painful treatment, saying successive governments had postponed difficult decisions while allowing economic distortions to deepen.
“Our reforms did not create the weaknesses in our economy. They confronted them,” he said, rejecting calls to return to what he described as “addictive subsidies.”
Tinubu acknowledged, however, that millions of Nigerians still struggle to afford food, school fees, healthcare and transportation, attributing the hardship to decades of low productivity, inadequate infrastructure and limited opportunities.
He said the next phase of his administration would focus on cutting the cost of living, creating productive jobs, expanding agriculture and industrialisation, improving infrastructure and defeating poverty.
Tinubu promised increased investment in mechanised farming, irrigation, storage, roads, railways, ports, power and digital connectivity, while strengthening access to finance, education, healthcare and social protection.
“Our priority is to bring down the cost of living,” he said, stressing that prosperity must mean affordable food and transportation, productive jobs, functioning industries and better opportunities for young Nigerians.
Declaring that Nigeria had reached a turning point, Tinubu said the country could not erase in four years problems accumulated over generations but could change their course.
“The age of reform has done its work. Now begins the age of prosperity,” he said, urging Nigerians to remain focused on the future. “Nigeria has corrected its course. We have passed through our own Red Sea. This is not the time to look back,” he declared, concluding that the country’s destination was “a Nigeria of abundance and opportunity” where prosperity would be broadly shared.