President Bola Tinubu has defended the economic reforms introduced by his administration, saying the difficult measures were necessary to prevent Nigeria’s economic situation from deteriorating further.
Tinubu made the remarks on Thursday in a nationwide broadcast to commemorate Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary.
The president said his administration inherited an economy in which poverty was increasing and public confidence was declining, leaving the government with little choice but to take decisive action.
“By 2023, poverty was rising, and hope was nearly gone,” Tinubu said, adding that the country’s condition had become “darker than ever.”
According to him, successive administrations had relied on temporary solutions instead of addressing the underlying problems affecting the economy.
“For too long, Nigeria’s leaders chose morphine while praying for a miracle that never came,” he said.
Tinubu said his administration therefore decided to adopt a different approach when it assumed office, describing the decision as an attempt to remove what he called the “cancer” affecting the economy.
He acknowledged that the reforms came with significant difficulties and adverse effects but maintained that those consequences should not be mistaken for the problems the policies were designed to address.
“The reforms that followed were difficult,” he said. “The side effects were real. Yet, we must never confuse the medicine with the disease.”