Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s Independence Day address, saying it failed to adequately address insecurity, poverty and the impact of the administration’s economic reforms on Nigerians.
Dalung, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said the President should have used his 66th Independence anniversary speech to provide concrete evidence of progress since assuming office in 2023.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Thursday, Dalung described the address as “rhetorical, wishful, ambitious, but very, very disappointing and empty”.
He said the President should have focused on accountability and measurable achievements rather than repeating assurances that the reforms would eventually yield results.
“I think a speech by the president at our 66th anniversary—and he said three and a half years in office—should have concentrated more on giving Nigerians accountability; [show] concrete successes recorded so far by the reforms in the last three and a half years,” Dalung said.
He said Tinubu should have addressed major challenges including insecurity, agriculture, the economy, unemployment, hunger, poverty and foreign policy.
“These would have been the things that the president should have revealed in his speech, and he should have been able to tell as well, from 1960 to when he assumed office, this was the progress made, and then in three and a half years, despite the fact that the government inherited challenges, progress has been made,” he said.
Tinubu, in his broadcast, defended his economic reforms, including the removal of the petrol subsidy and foreign exchange reforms, and likened Nigeria’s condition in 2023 to that of a cancer patient requiring difficult treatment.
“By 2023, poverty was rising, and hope was nearly gone. The country’s situation was darker than ever. We had no choice but to act,” the President said.
“Nigeria was like a sick patient who receives the terrible news that he has cancer. His doctor explains that the treatment will be difficult and painful, but that it offers a strong prospect of recovery.”
But Dalung said Nigerians had heard similar explanations since the administration came into office without seeing sufficient improvement in their daily lives.
“But all that the president has done was to tell Nigeria the same stories: ‘Oh, be patient and expect our reforms will yield,’” he said.
“The question is, when shall the cancer victim recover? Because it does appear that the surgery has put him in a coma.”
The former minister acknowledged that the economy had recorded growth but argued that the government needed to demonstrate how the figures had affected the living conditions of ordinary Nigerians.
“So if we have recorded 4% economic growth, how has that been able to affect an average Nigerian? Because it has to be translated into putting something before the ordinary Nigerians,” he said.
“How does that 4% affect the cost of transportation and the purchasing power of Nigerians?”
Dalung said government statistics should be accompanied by tangible improvements in the lives of citizens.
“I think just coming up with statistics of growth has been the way the government has been presenting it. I think he would have done much better to have moved beyond that, to be more practical and realistic, so that we can be able now to know whether the cry, the huge cry by Nigerians, is also rhetorical,” he said.
He also said Tinubu’s address failed to inspire Nigerians because of what he described as a disconnect between government pronouncements and the experiences of citizens.
“In 1977, when I listened to the then military governor of Plateau State reading his independence speech, and when I was admitted to go to secondary school, I actually connected his speech with the hope he created, because everything the government provided for me,” Dalung said.
“The government gave me even transport money. All the instructional materials were provided, food, bedding, and everything. That is how you connect with the generation.”
Dalung further faulted the President for not giving enough attention to insecurity, particularly the situation in Plateau State.
“The president completely abandoned Nigerians who are in captivity. As we are talking, the statistics you roll out are far, far, far beyond that,” he said.
“Plateau State, for example, we are already running a full-blown war, because every day there is one attack or the other. Every day there are mass burials, so we are at war.”
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