President Bola Ahmed Tinubu marked Nigeria’s 66th Independence Day with a speech that was, at its core, an argument about time — that the hard part is over and the point of it all is only now arriving.

He opened with the long view. Sixty-six years ago the flag went up over a free nation, and the promise was never just a flag or an anthem. It was that Nigerians would get to shape their own future and build a country that could offer opportunity, dignity and a decent life. Tinubu said that job has now passed to his generation.

He didn’t pretend the journey had been smooth. War, military rule, economic crises, insecurity, political upheaval — and, in his words, a journey that has “generally been too hard for too many.” What held it together, he said, was ordinary people: the farmer up before dawn, the trader opening her shop, the teacher, the young entrepreneur who wouldn’t give up. He also thanked the armed forces and security services.

The diagnosis, and the medicine

The most memorable part of the speech was a medical metaphor, and Tinubu leaned into it hard.

By 2023, he said, poverty was rising and hope was nearly gone. He compared Nigeria to a patient told he has cancer. The treatment will be painful, the doctor says, but there’s a real chance of recovery. The patient can take the treatment — or he can ask for morphine, dull the pain, and let the disease spread.

“For too long,” Tinubu said, “Nigeria’s leaders chose morphine while praying for a miracle that never came.” They treated symptoms, spent heavily on arrangements that were never meant to last, and passed the bill to the next generation.

His administration, he said, chose the treatment. The reforms hurt — he acknowledged the side effects were real — but he insisted the medicine should not be confused with the disease. And he pushed back directly at critics who want to reverse course, warning against the “siren song” of returning to what he called addictive subsidies.

The evidence he cites

Three and a half years in, Tinubu pointed to numbers: growth above 4 percent this year, with both oil and non-oil sectors contributing. Oil theft down. Inflation well off its peak. Foreign reserves rebuilt. A stabilised exchange rate. And in 2025, he said, the country recorded its highest non-oil export revenue ever — more than $6 billion.

He stressed these aren’t just government claims. International observers, journalists, NGOs and multilateral institutions have reached similar conclusions about the reforms, he said, and foreign direct investment keeps rising.

The turn: from crisis mode to prosperity

Then came the pivot. “The emergency treatment is over,” Tinubu declared. “The foundation has been repaired.” The task now, he said, is simple: shared and widespread prosperity.

He was careful to define what he meant. Not bigger numbers or better statistics, but a farmer who can work his land safely and earn a decent return. Factories with reliable power. Businesses that can get credit. Young people who can find productive work. Affordable food and transport, education within reach, and families who can look ahead with confidence.

How he plans to get there

The central priority, Tinubu said, is bringing down the cost of living by lowering what it costs to produce and move the things Nigerians buy. That means mechanised irrigation and dry-season farming, better access to seeds and fertiliser, more mechanisation, and investment in storage and transport — plus roads, railways and ports linking farms and factories to markets.

His logic: when the farmer produces more cheaply, when fewer crops spoil on the way to market, when a manufacturer spends less on electricity, when trucks arrive faster, and when competition is fair — those savings eventually show up in prices on the shelf.

But cheap goods alone aren’t prosperity, he argued. It also takes productive work. Nigeria is young, and millions enter adulthood every year. The goal is to turn that demographic weight into an engine of production rather than “a source of despair.” Hence the focus on jobs, enterprise and industry: using gas to power new factories, reviving industrial centres, expanding digital connectivity, investing in skills, and backing Nigerian businesses with infrastructure and finance.

He listed what he wants to see: more Nigerians making things, Nigerian farms feeding cities and supplying factories, Nigerian goods sold worldwide, and young Nigerians building companies at home.

The honest caveat

Tinubu didn’t skip the people who can’t wait. Some families, he said, are still struggling for the next meal, the next school fee, the next medical bill. And he was clear that their situation didn’t begin with the last three years — it’s the accumulated result of decades of low productivity, poor infrastructure, thin opportunity and institutions that failed the people who needed them most.

“We cannot erase in four years what accumulated over generations,” he said. “But we can change its course.”

That’s where the safety-net measures come in: direct support for the poorest households, an improved National Social Register, help so a low-income family’s child isn’t shut out of higher education by fees, consumer credit through CREDICORP for vehicles and solar systems and devices, and stronger primary healthcare and basic education with state and local governments. He noted salaries and pensions have been paid on time and in full since 2023, and the national pension programme has been reformed.

He framed all of it as a bridge, not a destination. “Our objective is not to manage poverty more efficiently. We will defeat it.”

The closing note

Tinubu conceded it will take time, discipline and sustained growth, but argued Nigeria is attempting this from a position of strength for the first time in decades, with the economy’s direction corrected.

“The age of reform has done its work,” he said. “Now begins the age of prosperity.”

He reached for a biblical image to close: Nigeria has “passed through our own Red Sea,” and this is not the time to look back. The Promised Land ahead, he said, is a country of abundance and opportunity, where prosperity is broadly shared and every child can dream beyond the circumstances of their birth.

“Our destination is in sight. Our foundations are strong. Our direction is clear. So let us go forward. No looking back.”