On Nigeria’s 66th Independence Day, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu addressed the nation, acknowledging that millions of Nigerians are still struggling for their next meal, school fee and medical bill, while casting a vision of an economy that lifts people out of poverty and builds businesses, farms and unicorns that compete globally. He took a swipe at his predecessors, declaring that past leaders chose the morphine of subsidies while his administration chose to excise the cancer, and noted that four years cannot undo what generations built, but can change the country’s course.
Concurrently, the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, and Senate President, Godswill Akpabio also released independence statements. The First Lady described Nigeria’s diversity as one of its greatest assets, to be nurtured through peace and dialogue, while Akpabio urged Nigerians to sustain the values of unity and patriotism.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has reportedly opened talks for a 1.5 billion dollar loan, about 2 trillion naira, drawing sharp reactions online. The proposed breakdown splits the loan equally, with 500 million dollars each for climate change efforts, cash transfers to poor households, and children’s nutrition, education and healthcare.
In Kano State, showing on Wednesday are pro-Tinubu supporters in matching white shirts and caps branded PBAT 2027 Movement, with one member saying it would be a mistake for Nigerians not to give Tinubu another opportunity. Another set of crowds were waving banners inscribed “Gida-Gida Tiktokers,” said to be an online support group for Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf.
Also, the President’s son, Seyi Tinubu, is seen dancing on the tarmac at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Tuesday evening, after his father returned from a working vacation abroad.
FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike pledges at a press briefing on Wednesday that President Tinubu should remove him as minister if the President fails to win the FCT and Rivers State in the 2027 presidential election.
Concurrently, Wike’s son, Jordan is facing a legal storm. Claimants told an FCT High Court that he agreed to facilitate the acquisition of sixty hectares of land in Abuja for 2.1 million dollars, with two million allegedly meant for his father and one hundred thousand for himself, and that he neither delivered the land nor returned the money after receiving the cash in London. Jordan denies the claim, saying his signature was forged, that he has never met the claimants, and that he was outside Nigeria on the date in question. The court has ordered him to produce his American passport and adjourned the case to December.
Today, in Akwa Ibom State, Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has fulfilled his pledge, presenting ten thousand dollars each to two extraordinary scholars: eighteen-year-old Mathematics prodigy, Uwakmfon Jacob, and medical record-breaker, Dr Joseph Peter Akpan. Dr Akpan graduated as the best student in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Uyo with ten distinctions out of eleven courses, breaking a twenty-five year record and winning twenty-five awards. Uwakmfon, a Software Engineering student at Nile University of Nigeria with a perfect 5.0 CGPA, is a forty-four time gold medallist in Mathematics Olympiads across nine countries. Both also received grants from the Akwa Ibom State Government.
Finally, as Nigeria marks 66 years of independence, a decade-by-decade look at national highlights: independence on October 1st in the 1960s, FESTAC 77 in the 1970s, Wole Soyinka’s 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature in the 1980s, the Dream Team’s Olympic football gold at Atlanta 96 in the 1990s, Agbani Darego’s Miss World crown and the rise of Nollywood in the 2000s, and the global march of Afrobeats, with Burna Boy, Wizkid and Tems winning Grammy Awards, in the decade after.
Follow us on:
