I will respect INEC’s independence, assist the prompt publication of results from every polling unit, and insist that anyone caught buying votes or changing results faces the law – even if that someone belongs to my party. Yet nearly every reply in your tackle was regarding tomorrow. Print what is owed and when it will be paid. So how did your government detect, connect alongside and settle them, largely so in parts of Yobe and Borno where insecurity makes admission difficult? Nigerians are entitled to seek what you have done using the time already given to you.
“You express that when farmers produce additional cheaply and manufacturers expend smaller on electricity, prices will fall. We will bring down prices. You made the decisions alone, not including Nigerians. Those hopes are neither extravagant nor beyond Nigeria’s achieve.
“Bola, the Promised Land is not in sight merely owing to the point that you can see it from the villa. Your government says it used restricted bidding. Three humans died in a stampede once a crowd gathered amid reports that ₦10,000 would be distributed. Nigerians are not asking you to reveal inferior families. He promised that the savings would advantage Nigerians. Reduced fares on a few routes are welcome, but they do not labor out the transport crisis facing the rest of the country.
“Bola, was this a Yahoo Yahoo promise or a hurried reply to my production subsidy suggestion? At present is October 1, and commuters are still asking where they can discover the bottom fares. They are asking for an auditable account of how the finance reached them. Then print the invitations, the bids, the evaluations, the final contract and every variation. A government that cannot build life budget-cordial and cannot secure life has failed the two tests that topic most to its individuals.
“This is not the Nigeria our founders struggled to established free. Before enduring, your government will request Nigerians to analysis a 2027 budget. What is scarce is the possibility to turn it into a living.
“And please do not truth every recent loan as an attitude. Demonstrate what they outlay, who benefited and who was paid.
“From my opening day in office, I will put affordability and the protection of life at the centre of government. You have just signed an extension keeping the 2025 budget in operation till the continue day of 2026. The police have made additional allegations against them; those allegations must be tested fairly. Tell Nigerians what these programmes have delivered, who has benefited and what they must spend support.
“The confusion extends to your budgets. These may look like secondary items in a government document. Thought every candidate, including me. Listen closely. Families dread the summon demanding ransom for somebody they love. Nigerians have spent three years looking for that address in the advertise, at the hospital and on the road to labor. I mourn them, and I repeat my contact for a entire account of how that gathering was organised.
“Reflect of the families waiting for them that night. Present them the routes and the prices. But I will not inquire you to surrender to despair.
Despair is not a strategy. Why does your government have extra resources whilst the persons can afford fewer?
“You mention Nigerians must tolerate the pain owing to the point that you are curing the disease. They are the capital left for a child’s lunch. If Bola disagrees, he should reply the present on its merits. May God bless you, and may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Petrol, transport and the charge of moving food rose. We have seen families waiting for relief although government asks for greater patience. Whereas Nigerians are lectured regarding hardship, those in power preside over brazen waste, corruption and a budget procedure that makes a mockery of fiscal discipline. If 2023 was the illness, why does your “cure” obtain smaller fuel, fewer eggs and a bottom loaf of bread?
“No mother struggling to feed her children is asking for “morphine.” No employee spending his wages on transport is addicted to subsidy. We will power factories. The obtain must achieve consumers throughout decreased pump prices. Extra patience. A farmer who cannot safely extend to his field cannot wait for your theory of cheaper food. Nigerians are entitled to be aware of whose prosperity your government is building.
“Nigeria’s audience debt stood at ₦166.79 trillion at the complete of June, and your government is now discussing another $1.5 billion in World Bank loans. Under your watch, some institutions have raised fees by further than 400 per cent, and your solution is to propose students loans to settle them. In communities under attack, community fear for their lives. He cannot proclaim food onto a family’s table or cash into a professional’s pocket.
“Bola, where is this prosperity?
“Bola says inflation has fallen. Greater faith in figures they cannot eat. Did your promise miss the bus?
“In your Independence Day speech, you found time to attack my scheme to create life inexpensive. A student loan does not create education inexpensive when fees are rising. To the young people who wonders whether one vote matters, to the parent who has lost faith in promises, and to the personnel who has grown tired of waiting: this country is yours. What does it state around the situation of our country that the opportunity of ₦10,000 can draw a desperate crowd, although its leaders announce an age of prosperity?
“Bola, you have put the weight of Nigeria’s economic wellbeing on a skateboard. Families are struggling to maintain their balance, businesses are falling, and you stand in Aso Rock declaring that the expedition to prosperity is going smoothly.
“Ahead of I forget, you promised Nigerians lesser transport fares from October 1. You should not require powerful friends to build it count.
“The coming election offers us a peaceful route to take our progression. How a lot of budgets must be transparent at once ahead of you can tell the country what was funded, what was completed and what remains unpaid? Some have lost their resource; their representatives tell some have died under the financial strain. They are skipping meals, delaying treatment and borrowing to live across up to the time that payday.
“And what has this government asked of them? Numerous borrowed from banks to do the effort and now experience demands for repayment on finance the government owes them. Imported petrol will not qualify. Society office belongs to the persons. Nigerian businesses deserve credit for what they have achieved. He does not refer to the patient “regressive” for asking when he will acquire stronger. We will release the costs, independently audit the payments and cut government waste to guide sponsor the programme.
“The benchmark is manageable: produce here, enhance here, generate jobs here and settle lower here. Display Nigerians where the savings went. Three years later, the pain has an tackle in every home. A sliced loaf was regarding ₦500 in April 2023; by May 2026, the mean was around ₦2,000 for a reduced loaf.
Former Vice President and 2027 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, on Thursday, made a declare of the nation tackle on the occasion of Nigeria’s 66th independence anniversary.
Naija News reports that Atiku delivered his speech at the ADC headquarters in Abuja.
In his control, Atiku accused President Bola Tinubu of worsening living costs and insecurity in Nigeria given that assuming power in 2023.
He, still, promised to create life easier for Nigerians if elected in the 2027 elections.
Below is the comprehensive wording of his speech.
“My fellow Nigerians,
“Sixty-six years subsequent to independence, millions of Nigerians are fighting for things a free country should not ever put beyond their attain: food on the table, a wage that lasts the month, and a protected excursion home. Watch your vote and decline intimidation.
“Bola Tinubu says Nigeria has crossed the Red Sea and that there must be “no looking assist.” Let him come down from Aso Rock and gather the Nigerians still struggling to acquire to the other side. The continued detention of Sheikh Sani Khalifa Zaria and Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai raises questions regarding due manage alongside that the authorities must response. The people are told there is no cash to ease their pain, yet government repeatedly seems to detect finance for its own appetites.
“Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy including one release and no credible protection in place for the families who would bear the shock. We will start bringing down the costs of food, fuel and power, improving connection to healthcare and education, and restoring security to communities living in fear. They opening demand task that pays sufficient to receive them throughout the month. Spend the outstanding entitlements, matter what remains unpaid, and prevent claiming that everyone has been paid in filled.
“A growing government account is not a recovering Nigerian. You cannot state a shared excursion during the time that refusing to account for who has carried the burden and where the promised savings have gone.
“Again, Bola, you told Nigerians that salaries and pensions are being paid “on time and in entire.” Tell that to the military pensioners who protested over unpaid adjustments. A government cannot maintain a person confront although making it harder for Nigerians to eat, identify out, search for treatment and stay alive.
“Bola, let us name who has found possibility in your “age of prosperity.” Hitech, a Chagoury Staff business, received the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway contract minus an available audience tender. He cites growth and rising exports. The Chagourys’ longstanding coordination using you is community knowledge, as are the reported organization ties amid your son Seyi and the family. Consumer credit does not build a employee prosperous if repayment takes another bite out of a wage already too secondary to live on. If it went into bank accounts, present the manage records. He does not matter to the hospital’s rising earnings and announce him healed. Calling relief an addiction will not lesser the value of petrol.
“Bola, your speech is complete of “we will.” We will make farming cheaper. A pensioner standing outdoors a government office to require what is owed does not contact for a lecture regarding prosperity. Families are not merely tightening their belts. They are asking what happened to the savings you promised and when your reforms will bring down the charge of living.
“My fellow Nigerians, I will not request you to adopt another promise excluding asking how it would effort.
Functioning using my running mate and our partners in the African Democratic Congress, I will pursue a understandable objective: produce life low-price again.
“We will bring in a capped, budgeted production subsidy tied to verified fuel improved in Nigeria, including fuel from modular refineries. We have counted what fuel costs, what food costs and what a wage can still purchase. A patient who cannot afford to live is not proof that the treatment is effective.
“And you cannot speak as although you arrived from the moon in 2023. Name the projects. You have been President for further than three years. If you could discover ten million humans to remit, you can account for the payments.
“Whereas politicians speak of hundreds of billions in relief, assessment what happened at the Niger Condition Government House. Your vote must count as you cast it. The 2026 budget exists alongside it. Present them the relief. Nigerians must be able to extend to it. I will account for audience spending and gauge strengthen by what Nigerians can afford and whether they can live safely.
“Then there is your party chairman’s maintain that extra than 10 million Nigerians received ₦75,000 each in cash transfers—at least ₦750 billion in all. I see their talent wherever I go. Armed groups have killed thousands and driven families from their communities. Your party had governed Nigeria for eight years. Let Nigerians see how this enormous award was decided.
“Meanwhile, community contractors who completed government projects continue unpaid. But growth must improve lives. We have a track to recovery, and we must take it.
“At present, Bola Tinubu told us that the “emergency treatment is over” and the “age of prosperity” has begun. Subsequent to three years of your treatment, why is it harder for Nigerians to obtain food, compensate for medicine or even gain to labor? A slower rise in prices does not restore what families have lost. A President may status a modern chapter in a speech. I see young individuals learning modern skills, making things and looking for a possibility to assist their country. They compensate transport fares at present. Nigerians cannot board an expression.
“Bola, release the routes, the fares and the overall of individuals benefiting. It cannot be a certificate of success that government awards itself although citizens struggle to live by manner of.
“Bola, you refer to Nigeria a patient together with cancer. The past three years under Bola Tinubu have plunged Nigeria into the most severe outlay of living crisis in our background. The salary has further than doubled on paper; the petrol it can shop for has fallen by further than half.
“The mean charge of one egg rose from around ₦88 in April 2023 to ₦261 in May 2026. Farmers fear their fields. The people have solely paid the rate for your reckless decisions. You advertised cheaper transport from October 1. Of direction they will. Demonstrate Nigerians the cheaper excursion you promised.
“My dear Bola, you said the community “cannot wait for tomorrow.” On that, I approve using you. Looking fund at a government’s account is a inhabitant’s right. If the country was as sick as you tell, tell Nigerians what responsibility your party bears for its circumstance.
“Let us bring this argument down from the podium to the places where Nigerians build their daily choices: the filling station, the advertise stall and the breakfast table. A mother, her daughter and another woman did not earn home. Bola, where is the achieve?
“And beyond the market, our nation is bleeding. Parents fear for children in their classrooms. They require jobs and safety at present.
“You additionally state, “We have made tough decisions together.” No, Bola! Now, a ₦70,000 minimum wage buys just 50 litres. Ambition is enough in Nigeria. Did officials send the capital by hand? A political slogan on a shirt must never become a foundation to imprison a Nigerian.
“And I constitute this promise to every Nigerian who has stood in line to vote and later wondered whether that vote counted: if elected President, I will effort to terminate election rigging. If so, who delivered it and where are the receipts? But you did not tell commuters which further routes became cheaper now, what the fares were prior to, what they price now, or how several humans can use them. Bola, why do your friends gain huge contracts whereas Nigerian contractors have to protest to be paid for effort they have already done? A speech regarding prosperity is not prosperity. In a family home, they are breakfast. Following Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s conviction, his right to lawful entice must be respected, whereas the grievances and divisions surrounding his case must be addressed seriously.
“I additionally repeat my refer to for the problem of the five young Nigerians arrested in Borno subsequent to wearing “Tinubu Must Go” T-shirts. In April 2023, a ₦30,000 minimum wage could purchase around 118 litres of petrol. Tell it to federal workers who have reported delayed salaries, wage awards and promotion arrears. But farmers and manufacturers are telling you that they cannot produce cheaply now. We have chosen a varied progression, peacefully and together, by method of the power of our votes; the attention is plain: Tinubu must go.
“Happy Independence Day. We will generate jobs. Nigerians must be free to query their leaders, organise peacefully and request alter. A budget should be a timetable for delivery, not a ball passed from one year to the subsequent.
“Bola says his government reforms have a person address. A factory paying additional to preserve its machines running cannot wait for another promise of industrial growth.
“You speak of young Nigerians building unicorns. But when a patient cries out, a doctor listens. Or halt calling their pain a cure.
“Our independence moreover demands political freedom. In advance of you borrow another dollar in the individuals’s name, tell them what the finance already borrowed has delivered. No President owns the voices of citizens.
“On this day, I name for the guideline of law to be applied fairly in every case. It is how we choose whether those who hold power deserve additional time.
“We have looked fund. Currently is October 1. But Nigerians are hungry now. Compensate the contractors. Contact for plans that can be examined and promises that can be measured. Professor Yilwatda says several beneficiaries have no phones. We have heard promises of prosperity from a President who cannot reveal millions of Nigerians where to identify it.
“Our founders did not win sovereignty so that a few could prosper whilst millions merely persist.
Their promise lives in standard hopes: a meal a family can afford, a secure road home, a child free to study, and activity that offers a track to a preferable life. Consider of the children who will expand up excluding a mother. What they have found is deepening poverty, healthcare they cannot afford, school fees they struggle to compensate, food beyond their achieve and electricity bills that consume what little they earn. Greater sacrifice.
Source: Full Text Of Atiku's Independence Day State Of The Nation Address
