The President of Nigeria Has finally Addressed the Nation after three days of protet throughout the country which in some states became violent with hudlums looting private and public property and some loosing their lives and others in custody. Bellow is the Full Speech of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Nigerians Delivered today the 4th of August 2024.
My fellow Nigerians,
I speak to you today about a sense of responsibility. I am aware of the tumult of violent protests unleashed in some of our states. Notably, among the protesters were young Nigerians who desired a better and more progressive country where their dreams, hope, and personal aspirations would be fulfilled. I am especially pained by the loss of life of Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, and other states, the distrction of facilities in some states, and the war-torn looting of supermarkets and shops contrary to the promise of protest organizers that the protests would be peaceful across the country.
The destruction of properties set us back as a nation, as if scarce resources would be again used to restore. I commesorate with the families and relations of those who have died in the protests. We must stop further bloodshed, violence, and destruction. As the President of this country, I must ensure public order. We rely on the constitutional approach to protect the lives and property of every citizen. Our government will not stand idly by and allow a few political agendas to tear this nation apart.
Under the circumstances, I urge the protesters and the organizers to suspend any further protests and create room for dialogue, which I have always assisted to at this slitest opportunity. Nigeria requires all arms on deck, and it owes all, regardless of age, party, religion, or other difference, to work together, reshaping our destiny as a nation. To those who have taken undue advantage of this situation, to threaten any section of this country, The law will catch up with you. There is no place for ethnic bigotry or such threats in Nigeria we seek to build.
Our democracy, progressiveness, and human rights of every Nigerian are respected and protected. Our law enforcement agencies should continue to ensure full protection of the lives and properties of innocent citizens in a responsible manner. My vision for our country is one of a just and prosperous nation, where each person will enjoy the peace, freedom, and many benefits that only democratic, good governance can provide. One that is open, transparent, and accountable to the Nigerian people.
For decades, our country has remained anemic and taken a dip because of many misalignments that have stunted our growth. Just over a year ago, our dear country, Nigeria, reached a point where we couldn’t afford to continue to use force to solve long-term problems. For the sake of now and our unborn generations, I therefore took the painful yet necessary decision to remove a subsidy and abolish multiple foreign exchange systems, which had constituted a nuisance around the economic juggler of our nation and impeded our economic development and progress. These actions broke the bloody pact that smugglers made. They also blocked the ongoing subsidy we had extended to our neighboring countries to the detriment of our people, rendering our economy prostrate.
These decisions I made were necessary if we must revive the aches of economic mismanagement that didn’t serve us well. Yes, I agree, the book stops on my table. I assure you that I am focused fully on delivering good governance to the people. In the past 14 months, our government has made significant strides in rebuilding the foundation of our economy to carry us into a future of plenty and abundance. On the political side, aggregate government revenue has more than tripled. It can provide money better in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023 due to our efforts at blocking leakages, introducing automation, and mobilizing funds collectively without additional burden on the people. Productivity is gradually increasing in the non-oil sector, reaching new levels and taking advantage of the opportunities made obvious by their brothers and sisters. We have come this far coming from a place where our country spent 97% of all our revenue on debt service.
We have been able to reduce that to 68% in the last 30 months. We have also cleared illegitimate outstanding foreign exchange obligations of about 5 billion without any adverse impact over that. This has given us more financial freedom and a room to spread more money for you, our citizens, to fund essential social services like education and health care. It has also led to our state and local governments receiving the highest allocation ever in our country’s history from the federation account.
We have also embarked on major infrastructure projects. We are working to complete inherited projects critical to our economic prosperity, including roads, bridges, railways, our oil and gas development. Notably, the Lagos-Kalaba-Kusaru Highway, our so-called Tiber-Daiquiri Highway project. We opened pubs in street-connected streets, creating thousands of jobs and boosting economic output through tourism and tourism.
Our once declining oil and gas industry is experiencing a resurgence on the back of the reforms I announced in May 2024. To address the gaps in the Petroleum Industry Act last month, we increased our oil production to 1.61 million barrels per day. Our gas assets are receiving the attention they deserve. Investors are coming back. We have made two foreign direct investments and signed over half a billion dollars since then.
Fellow Nigerians, we are a country based on both oil and gas resources, but we are a country that has been dependent solely on oil, gas, and petrol, neglecting its gas resources to power the economy. We are also using our hard-earned foreign exchange to subsidize the use. To address this, we recently launched our compressed natural gas initiative, CAG, to power our transportation economy and bring us down. This will save over 2 trillion Naira a month being used to import PMS and EGO, and free up our resources for more investment in health care and education.
To this end, we will be distributing staff of extremely low cost to commercial vehicles that transport people and goods, and who currently consume 80% of imported PMS and EGO. We have started the distribution of commercial kits and assortment of commercial centers across the country, in conjunction with the private sector. We believe that this CAG initiative will reduce transportation costs by approximately 60% and help to cope with inflation.
Our administration assumes its commitment to remove bifurcation of the student loan scheme. To date, 45.6 billion has already been processed for payment to students and their respective institutions. I encourage more of a vibrant youth population of this opportunity. We established the Consumer Credit Corporation with over 200 billion to help Nigeria to acquire essential products without the need for immediate cash payment, making life easier for millions of households. This will consequently reduce corruption and eliminate cash and opaque transactions.
This week, I honored the release of an additional 50 billion for NEL Fund, the Student Loan and Credit Corporation for the Proceeds of Crime Recovery, the EFCC. Additionally, we have secured $620 million for the digital and creative enterprises, IDICE, a program to empower our young people, creating millions of IT and technical jobs that will make them globally competitive. The three-million technical talent scheme.
Unfortunately, one of the digital centers was vandalized during the protests in Kano. In addition, we have introduced the skill-up partitions program, SUPA, the Nigeria Youth Academy New Year, and the National Youth Talent Excellence Program. Also, more than $570 million was given to the 36 cities to expand livelihood support to their citizens. While 600,000 nano-businesses have benefited from our nano-grants, an additional 400,000 non-nano-businesses are expected to benefit. Furthermore, 75,000 beneficiaries have proceeded to receive our one-million micro-digit interest loans.
Finally, starting this month, we have also built 10 MSME hubs. Within the past year, we have created 240,000 jobs through them. And five more hubs are in progress, which will be ready by October this year.
Payments of one billion each also have been made to us under our single-digit loan to boost manufacturing output and stimulate growth. Aside from the national minimum wage we took on last week and the lowest earning worker, we now earn at least 70,000 Naira a month.
Six months ago, in Kasana, Abuja, I inaugurated the first phase of our ambitious agri-initiative, the Renew and Estate. This project is the first of six we have planned across the nation’s geopolitical zones. Each of these cities will include a minimum of 1,000 units, with Kasana itself set to deliver 3,212 units.
In addition to these city projects, we are also launching the Renew and Estate, a network comprising 500 housing units. Our goal is to complete a total of 100,000 housing units over the next three years. This initiative is not only about providing homes but also about creating thousands of jobs across the nation, as well as stimulating economic growth.
We are providing incentives to farmers to increase food production. I have directed that tariffs and other opportunities should be removed on rice, meats, sorghum, and oats, and other pharmaceutical and medical supplies for the next six months. This is the first instance to help drive down the prices.
I have been meeting with our governors and key ministers to accelerate food production. We have distributed fertilizers to cultivate more than 10 million hectares of land to grow what we eat. The federal government will provide all necessary incentives for this initiative, whilst the state provides the land, which will put millions of our people to work and further increase food production.
In the past few months, we have also ordered mechanized heavy equipment, such as tractors with vehicles of Naira from the United States, Belarus, and Brazil. I can confirm to you that the equipment is on the way.
My dear Nigerians, especially our youth, I have heard you loud and clear. I understand the pain and the frustration that drives these protests. I want to assure you that our government is committed to listening and addressing the concerns of our citizens. We must not let violence and destruction tear our nation apart. We must work together to build a brighter future where every Nigerian can live with dignity and prosperity.
The task before us is a collective one, and I am leading the charge as your president. A lot of work has gone into stabilizing our economy, and I must take full responsibility for ensuring that the benefits reach every single Nigerian, as we promised.
My administration is working very hard to improve and expand our national infrastructure and create more opportunities for our young people. Let nobody misinform and miseducate you about your country or tell you that your government does not care about you.
Although there have been many dashboards in the past, we are in a new era of renewed hope. We are working hard, and the result will soon be doable and concrete for everyone to see, feel, and enjoy. Let us work together to build a brighter future for ourselves and for generations to come.
Let’s choose hope over fear, unity over division, and progress over stagnation. The economy needs to shut out this oxygen. Now that we have been enjoying democratic governance for 25 years, do not let the extremists of the enemies of democracy use you to promote an unconstitutional agenda that will set us back on our democratic journey, forward never, backward never.
In conclusion, security and peace continue to maintain peace, law, and order in our country following the United States Convention on Human Rights, to which Nigeria is a signatory. The safety and security of all Nigerians are paramount. Thank God and thank you for your attention, and may God continue to bless our great nation. Thank you very much.
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