Nigeria @66: Tinubu rejects return to subsidies

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has rejected calls for a return to subsidies, saying his administration’s economic reforms addressed long-standing problems that successive governments had left unresolved.

In his Independence Day address on Thursday, the President acknowledged that the reforms had caused pain but argued that abandoning them would reverse the progress made since his government took office.

“Our reforms did not create the weaknesses in our economy. They confronted them,” he said.

Using the analogy of a patient diagnosed with cancer, the President said Nigeria had faced a choice between difficult treatment and temporary pain relief that would allow the illness to worsen.

“For too long, Nigeria’s leaders chose morphine while praying for a miracle that never came,” he said. “They focused on symptoms while allowing the disease to take hold deep within the fabric of our society.”

The President said his administration had chosen to confront what he described as deep economic distortions.

“The reforms that followed were difficult. The side effects were real. Yet, we must never confuse the medicine with the disease,” he said.

He warned against what he called the “siren song” of those urging a return to “addictive subsidies,” insisting that the country should build on the changes already made.

As evidence of an improved outlook, the President said Nigeria’s economy had grown by more than four per cent this year, with contributions from oil and non-oil activities.

He said oil theft had declined, inflation had fallen substantially from its peak, foreign reserves had been rebuilt and the foreign exchange market had stabilised.

The President also said non-oil export revenue exceeded $6 billion in 2025, which he described as the highest in Nigeria’s history.

“This is real money being made by real Nigerian businesses,” he said.
The President maintained that the government’s task had changed from correcting the economy’s course to ensuring that its gains reached households.

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