The Truth

When I first arrived in the United States as a young man, I drove a taxi to earn money for my education. I even had to postpone starting school for several months to save enough. When I eventually got to Chicago, I worked different jobs to support myself and pay my way through university. I know what it means to worry about tuition, accommodation and how to make ends meet while pursuing an education. Those experiences have stayed with me. I know what education made possible in my own life, and I believe every Nigerian child deserves that same opportunity, regardless of where they are born or what their parents can afford. This is one reason education remains a major priority of our Renewed Hope administration. Through NELFUND, we have provided over ₦372 billion in student loans for institutional fees and upkeep, helping young Nigerians remain in school and pursue their education. Our technical and vocational education programme has attracted over 2.8 million applications. We have rehabilitated 38 technical colleges, while students in federal and selected state technical colleges now benefit from free school fees, boarding, textbooks and uniforms. We have reached a new agreement with ASUU, providing for a 40% increase in academic staff remuneration and measures to improve stability in our universities. A four-year course must take four years. Our young people deserve to complete their education on time and get on with their lives. Promise made, Promise Kept In medical education, we are investing ₦110 billion in rehabilitating 24 medical schools. Annual nursing enrolment has increased from 28,000 to 115,000, while medical and dental enrolment has risen from 5,000 to 12,000. Nigeria needs more doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, and we must build the capacity to train them here at home. Over one million children who were previously out of school have been returned to learning. We are investing in teacher development, expanding educational opportunities for girls, and implementing a new national curriculum that restores Nigerian History to our classrooms. Our children must know where we have come from, understand the country they belong to, and be prepared to take responsibility for its future. I commend the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa @DrTunjiAlausa, the Minister of State, Professor Suwaiba Sa’id Ahmad @Suwaiba_Said, and the entire education team @NigEducation for their dedication to this important work. I am particularly pleased that the team has developed an interactive A–Z of the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI), bringing together the reforms, programmes, achievements and opportunities across our education system. I invite every Nigerian to visit edu4pbat.ng and explore the A–Z of NESRI. If you are a parent, find out what opportunities are available for your children. If you are a student, explore the programmes you can benefit from. If you are a teacher, see what support is available. And if something is not working as it should in your community, I want to hear about it. Your feedback will help us identify problems and address them. Our journey from reform to opportunities and shared prosperity must begin with education. The circumstances of a child’s birth should never determine the limits of their ambition. Our responsibility is to give every Nigerian child a fair chance to fulfil their potential. We have more work to do, and I am determined to see it through. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR President

2026 INDEPENDENCE DAY ADDRESS: FROM REFORMS TO PROSPERITY My fellow Nigerians, Sixty-six years ago today, our flag was raised, for the first time, over a free and sovereign nation. Since then, we have journeyed together as one nation, bound by our collective trust in the great promise of Nigeria: that a country of our size, our bountiful resources, our cultural diversity and, above all, our extraordinary people can build a giant in Africa; that in this blessed and fertile land we can build a united, strong and prosperous nation; a land of regional authority and global consequence. Our journey has not always been easy. In truth, it has generally been too hard for too many. We have known moments of great hope and periods of profound disappointment. We have endured war, military rule, economic crises, insecurity and political upheaval. Yet through it all, Nigeria, with the indomitable spirit of its people, has endured. It has endured through the efforts of the farmer who rises before dawn to work his land. The trader who opens her shop each morning, hopeful for a productive day. The teacher who believes in the children entrusted to her care and the young entrepreneur who refuses to surrender ambition to circumstance. We are grateful for the men and women of our Armed Forces and security services who place themselves in harm's way so that the rest of us may live in peace. Through every difficulty, generations of Nigerians have continued to believe in one thing: that this country of ours will be better. This faith, which sustains us all, is the inheritance of independence. Our founding fathers did not struggle merely for a flag, an anthem or a place among the nations of the world. Independence carried a larger promise: that Nigerians would have the freedom to shape their own destiny and build a nation capable of providing opportunity, dignity and a better life for its people. Sixty-six years later, Almighty God has made it our responsibility to deliver that promise. Today, as we celebrate our independence, we must speak honestly about the journey so far, the choices we made, and the country we are determined to build from here. For too long, the promise of Nigeria was undermined by choices that postponed difficult decisions and allowed deep economic distortions to grow. 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. Nigeria was like a sick patient who receives the terrible news that he has cancer. His doctor explains that the treatment will be difficult and painful, but that it offers a strong prospect of recovery. The patient has a choice. He can begin treatment, endure its discomfort and fight the disease. Or he can ask only for morphine, dull the pain and leave the cancer to spread. For too long, Nigeria's leaders chose morphine while praying for a miracle that never came. They focused on symptoms while allowing the disease to take hold deep within the fabric of our society. We spent enormous sums sustaining inefficient arrangements that were never intended to last. We hid from difficult truths and passed the consequences from one generation to the next. When this Administration assumed office, we resolved to do things differently. We chose to excise the cancer. The reforms that followed were difficult. The side effects were real. Yet, we must never confuse the medicine with the disease. Our reforms did not create the weaknesses in our economy. They confronted them. Now, as certain influential but regressive voices would have us abandon the treatment and return ourselves to the abuse of addictive subsidies, we must resist their siren song. We must remember why we began this journey and how far we have already come.

Rumours will always emanate from politics. The fact remains that I am here, ready to work, and ready to go. God bless Nigeria!

A tailor should not need millions of naira to buy industrial machinery before she can grow her business. A food processor should not have to build a factory before producing at scale. That is why the Federal Government, under our Renewed Hope administration, is investing in shared MSME hubs through our National MSME Clinics, giving entrepreneurs access to modern equipment, reliable power and production facilities without carrying the full cost alone. Today, 21 shared facilities across 19 states and the FCT are supporting businesses and an estimated 650,000 jobs. Nigerians do not lack ideas, skill or ambition. Too often, they lack access to the tools and infrastructure needed to turn them into successful businesses. Our job is to remove those barriers. When small businesses can produce more, at lower cost, they become more competitive. They grow. They employ more people. They create income and opportunity for Nigerian families. Giving Nigerian enterprise the tools to succeed is how we build prosperity from the ground up. That is the Nigeria we are building. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR President @NGRPresident @NigeriaGov

Under our Renewed Hope administration, Nigeria remains open to partnerships that deliver meaningful benefits at home and create opportunities for our people. I welcome the agreement signed in New York by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake @AlakeDele, and US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau to deepen American investment in Nigeria’s mining sector and help unlock the potential of our mineral resources, estimated at about $700 billion. From the beginning, we made a deliberate choice to move Nigeria away from simply extracting and exporting raw minerals. We tied new mining licences to local value addition and have worked to attract investment into processing and refining here at home. That policy is already producing results. New processing plants are being established, billions of dollars in investment commitments have entered the sector, and investor interest in Nigeria’s critical minerals continues to grow. Our ambition now is to deepen this progress across the entire mining value chain, from exploration and extraction to processing, refining and manufacturing. At every stage, Nigerians must benefit. Our geologists, engineers and technicians must find work. Our young people must acquire new skills. Local contractors, transporters and suppliers must have opportunities to build businesses. Processing closer to where minerals are found should bring industry, infrastructure and better livelihoods to mining communities. We are also changing what Nigeria sells to the world. We want to process more here, manufacture more here and export higher-value products. The agreement with the United States builds on the progress we have already made. We welcome partners who bring capital, technology and expertise and are prepared to create value with us here in Nigeria. Our mineral wealth must create Nigerian jobs, grow Nigerian businesses and bring greater prosperity to the communities where these resources are found. This is how we turn the reforms we have made into opportunities for every Nigerian. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR President @NGRPresident @NigeriaGov

The decisions we have taken to reposition Nigeria’s oil and gas sector are beginning to bear fruit. Since assuming office, I have signed a series of Presidential Directives and Executive Orders to make investment in Nigeria more competitive, reduce the cost and time required to develop projects, provide greater certainty to investors and ensure that our natural resources deliver greater value to our people. One of those reforms introduced specific incentives to unlock onshore and shallow-water gas projects that had remained undeveloped for years. Today, we are seeing the result. AMNI International and TotalEnergies have taken an $800 million Final Investment Decision to develop the Ima Gas Field, discovered in 1973 and left underground for more than fifty years. For Nigerians, this means work for our engineers, technicians and contractors. It means opportunities for Nigerian businesses, jobs and economic activity in our host communities, and more export earnings for our country. AMNI, a Nigerian company, holds the majority interest in the project. Around 60% of the development workforce is expected to come from the host communities. Ima is expected to produce about 350 million cubic feet of gas every day at peak and supply about one-third of the gas required for the expansion of Nigeria LNG. This is what our reforms are intended to achieve, to move Nigeria’s resources from potential to production and translate them into jobs, incomes and opportunity for our people. We have more to unlock. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR President

1/ On August 27, I met with the Governors of our 36 States, and we agreed on a clear objective that from October 1, more Nigerians should begin to see measurable reductions in transportation costs. An implementation committee for the National Affordable CNG Transit Programme was subsequently established under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum @NGFSecretariat, chaired by the Governor of Kwara State and Chairman of the Forum, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq @RealAARahman. I am aware of the considerable work already underway by the committee, PI-CNG & EV, the States, and other critical stakeholders to identify priority transport corridors, determine appropriate interventions, and put the necessary arrangements in place. This work has become even more urgent in the face of the current global energy crisis.

Nigeria is having a remarkable cultural moment in the world. Our music fills stadiums across continents. Our films and stories are reaching new audiences. Nigerian creativity, fashion and culture are commanding global attention. We must turn this moment into lasting economic value for our people. Today in Paris, I met with Vincent Bolloré of Bolloré Group, and his executives for extensive discussions on expanding their investments in Nigeria across film, entertainment, fibre optics and the digital economy. Through Canal+, MultiChoice, Universal Music and other businesses, they are looking to do more in Nigeria. They see our country as the arrowhead of Africa’s cultural awakening, powered by Nollywood, Afrobeats and the growing global appetite for Nigerian culture. I want more of the value created by Nigerian talent to remain in Nigeria. More production at home. Greater investment in our local industries and infrastructure. More opportunities and jobs for our young people. I have made this case consistently, including on greater localisation by MultiChoice. Our reforms are creating the conditions for investment and growth. My responsibility is to ensure that these investments translate into real opportunities for Nigerians. This is the purpose of the Renewed Hope Agenda. Bola Ahmed Tinubu President