President Bola Tinubu on Thursday likened the state of Nigeria when he assumed office in 2023 to that of a cancer patient who had just received a devastating diagnosis.
Delivering a nationwide broadcast to mark the country’s 66th Independence Day anniversary, Tinubu said successive leaders had for too long preferred temporary relief over confronting the nation’s deep-seated problems.
“By 2023, Nigeria was like a sick patient who received the terrible news that he had cancer,” the President stated. “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.”
Tinubu argued that his administration is taking a different path by implementing far-reaching economic and structural reforms that previous governments, including that of his predecessor Muhammadu Buhari, had avoided.
He criticised the long-standing practice of sustaining costly and inefficient systems that were never designed to endure. “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,” he said.
The President framed the current reforms as necessary, though painful, treatment required to cure the country’s fundamental ailments rather than merely managing their symptoms.
