President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has declared that Nigeria has moved beyond the “emergency treatment” phase of economic reform into what he described as an era of “shared and widespread prosperity,” in his Independence Day address to Nigerians on October 1, 2026.
Tinubu said his administration’s priority going forward would be building an economy driven by production, enterprise, industrial growth and productive employment, urging Nigerians to produce more goods and services, expand agricultural output and build globally competitive businesses.
“I want to see more Nigerians making things. I want to see more Nigerian farms feeding our cities and supplying our factories. I want to see Nigerian businesses selling Nigerian goods to the whole world. I want young Nigerians building unicorns and creating opportunities for others here at home,” he said. He stressed that genuine prosperity went beyond economic statistics.
“When I speak of prosperity, I do not speak merely of a larger economy, abstract numbers or better statistics. I mean something much more personal,” he said, describing it instead as safer farming, reliable electricity, access to credit, productive jobs for young people, and more affordable food, transportation and education.
Tinubu acknowledged that millions of Nigerians were still struggling with food, school fees, medical bills and transportation costs, attributing these hardships to decades of accumulated structural weaknesses rather than his three and a half years in office.
“We cannot erase in four years what accumulated over generations. But we can change its course,” he said.
He pledged continued support for vulnerable households through the National Social Register, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, CREDICORP, and strengthened primary healthcare and basic education in partnership with state and local governments.
“Our objective is not to manage poverty more efficiently. We will defeat it,” he said, closing his address with the declaration: “The age of reform has done its work. Now begins the age of prosperity.”
