By Suleyman A. Ndanusa PhD, OON
Mr. President, happy Independence Day. Your Independence Day address presents a confident journey from difficult reforms to a new age of prosperity. Its focus on the cost of living, food production, jobs, industry and opportunity speak to the concerns of ordinary Nigerians. It also rightly reminds us that economic progress should be judged by whether people can live with greater security and dignity, not only by the movement of national figures.
But a presidential Independence Day address is more than an account of economic policy. It is an opportunity to take stock of the country as a whole, its anxieties as well as its ambitions, its wounds as well as its prospects. Read in that light, the speech leaves some important questions unanswered. What a national address includes matters; what it leaves out matters too.
The most striking omission is security. The speech thanks members of the Armed Forces and security services for their service, but offers little about the threat Nigerians face or how the government intends to meet it. Families worried about insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, communal violence and the safety of their farms and roads needed more than an expression of gratitude. They needed to hear what is changing in the government’s response, how communities will be protected, and how the country will measure progress. The promise of greater agricultural production, for example, cannot be separated from the farmer’s ability to reach and work the land safely. A tractor is useful; a safe journey to the farm is essential.
The speech also says little about corruption and the quality of public governance. These are not side issues in the journey to prosperity. Corruption can drain money intended for roads, schools, hospitals and security. Weak oversight can leave even a well-designed programme stranded between announcement and delivery. Nigerians would have welcomed a clear statement on how public funds will be protected, how procurement will be made transparent, and how officials who misuse public resources will be held accountable. Reform asks citizens to accept difficult choices. Confidence grows when they can see that discipline applies to public office as well as to the household.
There is a related question of governance: how will the promised transition from reform to prosperity actually be managed? The address sets out worthy ambitions, but gives few measurable commitments or timelines. It does not explain how federal, state and local governments will coordinate on basic education, primary healthcare, security and social protection, or how citizens will be able to assess results. Government cannot deliver shared prosperity by declaration alone. It needs capable institutions, dependable public services, honest reporting and consequences when delivery falls short. Even the best policy will eventually meet the familiar Nigerian obstacle course between approval and implementation.
National cohesion also deserved more attention. The speech calls Nigerians to move forward together, but unity is strengthened when leaders acknowledge the divisions, mistrust and sense of exclusion that can weaken the national bond. An Independence Day message could have spoken more directly to the need for fairness among regions and communities, equal citizenship, responsible public debate and confidence in the institutions that hold the federation together. A country is not united simply because its people share a flag; they must also feel that they share a future.
The address speaks warmly of young people, jobs and opportunity, but could have confronted more directly the scale of unemployment, underemployment and the skills gap. Its references to education loans and consumer credit are relevant, yet credit is not a substitute for adequate schooling, productive jobs or rising incomes. A loan can help someone acquire an asset; it cannot by itself create the dependable work needed to repay it. Health, education, housing and the pressures facing low-income families also deserved a fuller place in a speech about prosperity.
The economic case itself would have been more convincing with a franker account of the burdens citizens have carried and a clearer way to judge whether those burdens are easing. The speech argues that reforms confronted long standing weaknesses and cites signs of improvement. Those gains deserve recognition. But stabilisation is a foundation, not the finished house. For many households, hardship remains immediate. The promised new age will become credible when people can see food and transport becoming more affordable, real incomes improving, public services working, and assistance reaching those who need it.
The speech’s central promise is welcome: that reform should now lead to prosperity shared across the country. To give that promise weight, the government should set out a public scorecard with clear targets, timelines and regular progress reports covering security, household welfare, jobs, public services and the integrity of public spending. Nigerians do not expect one Independence Day address to solve every national problem. They do expect it to show that their most urgent concerns have been heard and that government knows how it will answer them.
Mr President, the speech offered hope and a call to move forward. The next step is to show, in both policy and public reporting, how the country will travel that road safely, fairly and accountably. The economic chart may be moving in the right direction; the family table, the farm and the neighbourhood must soon be able to confirm it.
Happy Independence Day to Nigeria and to all Nigerians.
Suleyman A. Ndanusa, PhD, OON, is an economist, lawyer, strategic studies scholar, and public policy thinker and practitioner with extensive experience in financial markets, regulation, governance, national Security and development.
