By 2023, Nigeria’s economic problems had become like cancer — Tinubu

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday described Nigeria in 2023 as a sick patient diagnosed with cancer, saying his administration had no choice but to take difficult and painful decisions to address the country’s deep economic problems.

Tinubu said years of postponing difficult decisions had allowed economic distortions to deepen, with rising poverty and dwindling hope forcing the government to act.

Tinubu said this in his Independence Day broadcast to Nigerians aired on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) from Lagos.

“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.

Using a medical analogy, Tinubu said Nigeria at the time was like a cancer patient who had to choose between undergoing painful treatment or merely taking medication to suppress the symptoms while allowing the disease to spread.

“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,” he said.

“The patient has a choice. He can begin treatment, endure its discomfort and fight the disease. Or he can ask only for morphine, dull the pain and leave the cancer to spread.”

Tinubu said successive administrations had, for too long, focused on managing the symptoms of the country’s economic problems rather than confronting their underlying causes.

“For too long, Nigeria’s leaders chose morphine while praying for a miracle that never came,” he said.

“They focused on symptoms while allowing the disease to take hold deep within the fabric of our society. We spent enormous sums sustaining inefficient arrangements that were never intended to last. We hid from difficult truths and passed the consequences from one generation to the next.”