NEWS
President Tinubu’s National Speech [FULL TEXT]
My fellow citizens,
1. I want to talk to you about our economy. It is important that you understand the reasons for the policy measures I have taken to combat the serious economic challenges this nation has long faced.
2. am not going to talk in difficult terms by dwelling on economic jargon and concepts. I will speak in plain, clear language so that you know where I stand. More importantly, so that you see and hopefully will share my vision regarding the journey to a better, more productive economy for our beloved country.
3. For several years, I have consistently maintained the position that the fuel subsidy had to go. This once beneficial measure had outlived its usefulness. The subsidy cost us trillions of Naira yearly. Such a vast sum of money would have been better spent on public transportation, healthcare, schools, housing and even national security. Instead, it was being funnelled into the deep pockets and lavish bank accounts of a select group of individuals.
4. This group had amassed so much wealth and power that they became a serious threat to the fairness of our economy and the integrity of our democratic governance. To be blunt, Nigeria could never become the society it was intended to be as long as such small, powerful yet unelected groups hold enormous influence over our political economy and the institutions that govern it.
5. The whims of the few should never hold dominant sway over the hopes and aspirations of the many. If we are to be a democracy, the people and not the power of money must be sovereign.
6. The preceding administration saw this looming danger as well. Indeed, it made no provision in the 2023 Appropriations for subsidy after June this year. Removal of this once helpful device that had transformed into a millstone around the country’s neck had become inevitable.
7. Also, the multiple exchange rate system that had been established became nothing but a highway of currency speculation. It diverted money that should have been used to create jobs, build factories and businesses for millions of people. Our national wealth was doled on favourable terms to a handful of people who have been made filthy rich simply by moving money from one hand to another. This too was extremely unfair.
8. It also compounded the threat that the illicit and mass accumulation of money posed to the future of our democratic system and its economy.
9. I had promised to reform the economy for the long-term good by fighting the major imbalances that had plagued our economy. Ending the subsidy and the preferential exchange rate system were key to this fight. This fight is to define the fate and future of our nation. Much is in the balance.
10. Thus, the defects in our economy immensely profited a tiny elite, the elite of the elite you might call them. As we moved to fight the flaws in the economy, the people who grow rich from them, predictably, will fight back through every means necessary.
11. ur economy is going through a tough patch and you are being hurt by it. The cost of fuel has gone up. Food and other prices have followed it. Households and businesses struggle. Things seem anxious and uncertain. I understand the hardship you face. I wish there were other ways. But there is not. If there were, I would have taken that route as I came here to help not hurt the people and nation that I love.
12. What I can offer in the immediate is to reduce the burden our current economic situation has imposed on all of us, most especially on businesses, the working class and the most vulnerable among us.
13. Already, the Federal Government is working closely with states and local governments to implement interventions that will cushion the pains of our people across socio-economic brackets.
14. Earlier this month, I signed four (4) Executive Orders in keeping with my electoral promise to address unfriendly fiscal policies and multiple taxes that are stifling the business environment. These Executive Orders on suspension and deferred commencement of some taxes will provide the necessary buffers and headroom to businesses in the manufacturing sector to continue to thrive and expand.
15. To strengthen the manufacturing sector, increase its capacity to expand and create good paying jobs, we are going to spend N75 billion between July 2023 and March 2024. Our objective is to fund 75 enterprises with great potential to kick-start a sustainable economic growth, accelerate structural transformation and improve productivity. Each of the 75 manufacturing enterprises will be able to access N1 Billion credit at 9% per annum with maximum of 60 months repayment for long term loans and 12 months for working capital.
16. ur administration recognises the importance of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the informal sector as drivers of growth. We are going to energise this very important sector with N125 billion.
17. Out of the sum, we will spend N50 billion on Conditional Grant to 1 million nano businesses between now and March 2024. Our target is to give N50,000 each to 1,300 nano business owners in each of the 774 local governments across the country.
18. Ultimately, this programme will further drive financial inclusion by onboarding beneficiaries into the formal banking system. In like manner, we will fund 100,000 MSMEs and start-ups with N75 billion. Under this scheme, each enterprise promoter will be able to get between N500,000 to N1million at 9% interest per annum and a repayment period of 36 months.
19. To further ensure that prices of food items remain affordable, we have had a multi-stakeholder engagement with various farmers’ associations and operators within the agricultural value chain.
20. In the short and immediate terms, we will ensure staple foods are available and affordable. To this end, I have ordered the release of 200,000 Metric Tonnes of grains from strategic reserves to households across the 36 states and FCT to moderate prices. We are also providing 225,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer, seedlings and other inputs to farmers who are committed to our food security agenda.
21. Our plan to support cultivation of 500,000 hectares of farmland and all-year-round farming practice remains on course. To be specific, N200 billion out of the N500 billion approved by the National Assembly will be disbursed as follows:
-Our administration will invest N50 billion each to cultivate 150,000 hectares of rice and maize.
-N50 billion each will also be earmarked to cultivate 100,000 hectares of wheat and cassava.
22. This expansive agricultural programme will be implemented targeting small-holder farmers and leveraging large-scale private sector players in the agric business with strong performance record.
23. In this regard, the expertise of Development Finance Institutions, commercial banks and microfinance banks will be tapped into to develop a viable and an appropriate transaction structure for all stakeholders.
24. Fellow Nigerians, I made a solemn pledge to work for you. How to improve your welfare and living condition is of paramount importance to me and it’s the only thing that keeps me up day and night.
25. It is in the light of this that I approved the Infrastructure Support Fund for the States. This new Infrastructure Fund will enable States to intervene and invest in critical areas and bring relief to many of the pain points as well as revamp our decaying healthcare and educational Infrastructure.
26. The fund will also bring improvements to rural access roads to ease evacuation of farm produce to markets. With the fund, our states will become more competitive and on a stronger financial footing to deliver economic prosperity to Nigerians.
27. Part of our programme is to roll out buses across the states and local governments for mass transit at a much more affordable rate. We have made provision to invest N100 billion between now and March 2024 to acquire 3000 units of 20-seater CNG-fuelled buses.
28. These buses will be shared to major transportation companies in the states, using the intensity of travel per capital. Participating transport companies will be able to access credit under this facility at 9% per annum with 60 months repayment period.
29. In the same vein, we are also working in collaboration with the Labour unions to introduce a new national minimum wage for workers. I want to tell our workers this: your salary review is coming.
30. Once we agree on the new minimum wage and general upward review, we will make budget provision for it for immediate implementation.
31. I want to use this opportunity to salute many private employers in the Organised Private Sector who have already implemented general salary review for employees.
32. Fellow Nigerians, this period may be hard on us and there is no doubt about it that it is tough on us. But I urge you all to look beyond the present temporary pains and aim at the larger picture. All of our good and helpful plans are in the works. More importantly, I know that they will work.
33. Sadly, there was an unavoidable lag between subsidy removal and these plans coming fully online. However, we are swiftly closing the time gap. I plead with you to please have faith in our ability to deliver and in our concern for your well-being.
34. We will get out of this turbulence. And, due to the measures we have taken, Nigeria will be better equipped and able to take advantage of the future that awaits her.
35. In a little over two months, we have saved over a trillion Naira that would have been squandered on the unproductive fuel subsidy which only benefitted smugglers and fraudsters. That money will now be used more directly and more beneficially for you and your families.
36. For example, we shall fulfill our promise to make education more affordable to all and provide loans to higher education students who may need them. No Nigerian student will have to abandon his or her education because of lack of money.
37. Our commitment is to promote the greatest good for the greatest number of our people. On this principle, we shall never falter.
38. We are also monitoring the effects of the exchange rate and inflation on gasoline prices. If and when necessary, we will intervene.
39. I assure you my fellow country men and women that we are exiting the darkness to enter a new and glorious dawn.
40. Now, I must get back to work in order to make this vision come true.
41. Thank you all for listening and may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It is the view of the pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group, the Human rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) that the apex court has been presented with an opportunity to redeem the waning public image of the Nigerian judiciary by the emergency rule declared in Rivers State.
Biztellers reports that the matter challenging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s proclamation of a state of emergency and the suspension of a sitting Governor of Rivers State, Siminilayi Fubara was instituted by some Nigerian governors.
The HURIWA, in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, noted that the Nigerian judiciary has never witnessed the kind of downturn, loss of public confidence and trust in the integrity to such a terrible extent that over 98 percent of Nigerians believed that President Tinubu has effectively pocketed the judiciary given that he was instrumental to the phenomenal rise of the current chief justice of Nigeria who was the justice that pronounced the then APC governorship candidate Hope Uzodimma who came 4th in the Imo State election as the winner thereby displacing the governor Emeka Ihedioha.
Ihedioha was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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According to Onwubiko, besides, the Supreme Court’s recent highly biased and openly partisan judgment read by Justice Emmanuel Agim lambasting Governor Fubara and stopping the Central Bank of Nigeria from remitting the rightful allocations from the Federation Account to the coffers of the Rivers State government – a politically motivated ruling that led to the destabilisation of democratic structures of Rivers State including the unconstitutional suspension of Governor Fubara by President Tinubu.
The Rights group added that the inability of the Supreme Court to sanction Justice Emmanuel Agim for openly fraternising with the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike at the recently held convocation ceremony of the University of Calabar shows the complicity and compromise with the executive arm of government by the Nigerian judiciary whose hierarchy is domiciled in the Supreme Court.
The HURIWA, therefore, affirmed that the time has now come for the world to see whether or not it is factually accurate the conspiracy theory that President Tinubu has the Nigerian judiciary in his pockets just as the Rights group said the decision by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in this matter brought by 11 governors of the PDP with a specific request for interpretation of the Constitution to ascertain if an elected president with same constitutional ways of impeachment just like the elected governor of the states, has the powers to unseat or unilaterally suspend a sitting governor like it was done to Gov Fubara.
Onwubiko maintained that the verdict on this case would be a verdict on the integrity of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and would be the last stroll that would break the camel’s back in terms of trusting the judiciary.
The HURIWA noted that the governors, in the suit marked: SC/CV/329/2025, predicated the summons on eight grounds.
The plaintiffs in the suit are Adamawa, Enugu, Osun, Oyo, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom, Plateau, Delta, Taraba, Zamfara, and Bayelsa States.
The plaintiffs urged the Supreme Court to determine if the President had the power to suspend a democratically elected structure of a state.
They also asked the apex court to determine if the way and manner the President pronounced the state of emergency declaration in Rivers State was not in contravention of the 1999 Constitution.
Amongst others, all 11 governors in the suit, filed through the states’ Attorney Generals, prayed the court to determine the following, “Whether upon a proper construction and interpretation of the provisions of Sections 1(2), 5(2), 176, 180, 188 and 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can lawfully suspend or in any manner whatsoever interfere with the offices of a Governor and the Deputy Governor of any of the component 36 States of the Federation of Nigeria and replace same with his own unelected nominee as a Sole Administrator, under the guise of, or pursuant to, a Proclamation of a State of Emergency in any of the State of the Federation, particularly in any of the Plaintiffs States?
The HURIWA expressed belief that there is no provision of the extant Grund Norm that authorises the sitting President to suspend a sitting governor, and therefore reminded the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kekere-Ekun that Nigerians will judge the Supreme Court and the judiciary by the kind of pronouncement the Supreme Court eventually makes in the aforesaid matter, especially with regards to the decision of the president to suspend a sitting governor.
“The judgment in this matter will determine whether Nigerians will support constitutional democracy or conclude that the judiciary has endorsed totalitarianism and dictatorship,” it added.
The Zamfara State House of Assembly is in mourning following the sudden death of Hon. Aminu Ibrahim Kasuwar-Daji, who represented the Kaura Namoda South Constituency.
The lawmaker passed away in his sleep on Wednesday morning.
In an official statement, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara expressed deep sorrow over the lossloss.
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Yusuf Idris, the party’s Publicity Secretary, described the late lawmaker as “a dedicated, honest, and God-fearing individual who served both his constituency and humanity with passion.”
The APC extended its condolences to the family of the deceased, the people of Kaura Namoda South, and members of the Zamfara State Assembly.
The statement concluded with prayers for the deceased, asking Allah to grant him Jannatul Firdaus and provide his loved ones with the strength to bear the loss.
Hon. Kasuwar-Daji will be laid to rest today at 3:00 pm in his hometown of Kasuwar-Daji, Kaura Namoda Local Government Area.
In a bold move to redefine its national identity and sever ties with its colonial past, Niger’s ruling junta has officially adopted Hausa as the country’s national language, replacing French.
A new national charter, published in a special edition of the government’s official journal on March 31, stated: “The national language is Hausa” and “the working languages are English and French.”
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The decision is part of sweeping reforms introduced by the military government that took power in July 2023 after ousting President Mohamed Bazoum. Since then, the junta has taken deliberate steps to distance itself from France, including the expulsion of French troops and the renaming of streets and landmarks that bore French names.
Hausa is the most widely spoken language in Niger, particularly in the regions of Zinder, Maradi, and Tahoua. By contrast, French is spoken by only about 13 percent of the population—just over three million people in a country of 26 million.
The charter also designates nine other local languages—Zarma-Songhay, Fula, Kanuri, Gourmanche, Arabic and others—as the “spoken languages of Niger.”
The reforms stemmed from a national conference held in February, during which the junta was granted broader powers, including a five-year extension for General Abdourahamane Tiani to remain as head of state.
Niger, along with Mali and Burkina Faso—also under military rule—recently withdrew from the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), a cultural and political body representing French-speaking countries.
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