By Celestine Okafor (Editor-in-chief)
President Bola Tinubu inherited an economy carrying major structural distortions. His administration removed the petrol subsidy and moved to unify the multiple foreign-exchange market.
The reforms produced severe immediate pressure on households through higher transport and living costs. But they also changed the government's fiscal position and reduced some of the distortions associated with subsidised petroleum and multiple exchange-rate windows.
The IMF said in June 2026 that the reforms had improved macroeconomic outcomes and resilience, while warning that living conditions remained difficult and poverty and food insecurity remained major concerns.
The World Bank likewise reported that inflation had eased markedly, external and fiscal positions had strengthened and growth remained robust, but household incomes had not fully recovered and poverty remained high.
The administration has subsequently pursued tax reform, energy reform, agricultural programmes, infrastructure, social investment, student loans, domestic refining and other initiatives.
The 2025 Tax Acts took effect from January 1, 2026 and created a new framework for tax administration and revenue collection. The Electricity Act 2023 also provides a framework for broader electricity-market participation and renewable-energy integration.
The administration says more than 1.5 million students have benefited from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, while its 2026 anniversary statement points to ongoing investments in agriculture, refining, rail, power and infrastructure. These are government claims and should continue to be assessed against independently measurable outcomes.
The central test of Tinubu's presidency, therefore, is not simply whether reforms have been announced, but whether stabilisation can become inclusive prosperity.
What therefore went wrong is that after 66 years, the pattern becomes clearer. Nigeria's problem was never merely lack of resources.
First, the deeper problems were policy discontinuity by governments which repeatedly abandoned or renamed programmes instead of improving them.
Second, was overdependence on oil revenues which weakened incentives to build productive non-oil sectors.
Third, are the weak institutions which often depended too heavily on personalities.
Fourth, is corruption and rent-seeking of public resources that frequently became sources of private accumulation.
Fifth, is poor maintenance of national projects. In the past 66 years, Nigeria became better at commissioning projects than maintaining them.
Sixth, is human capital neglect in which education and health sectors were treated too often as expenditure rather than investment.
Seventh, became power failure. Electricity shortages raised the cost of virtually every productive activity.
Eighth, is insecurity. Conflict and crime have destroyed farms, businesses, communities and investments
Ninth, is population growth that outnumbers job creation. The World Bank estimates that about 3.5 million Nigerians enter the labour force annually, creating an enormous need for productive employment.
Tenth, is the failure to build a productive federation. Many states remain heavily dependent on federal transfers rather than building robust local economies and revenue systems.
Therefore, the Nigeria that must emerge after 66 years of our nationhood does not need another fashionable slogan. What it needs is a rolling plan, a national development compact lasting 20 to 30 years and surviving changes of government. Such agenda should be built around measurable national outcomes.
To achieve this ambitious initiative, however, is to first build an economic foundation for the country. The nation's administration should maintain macroeconomic stability while ensuring that reforms translate into lower living costs, higher real incomes and productive employment. The ultimate measure of reform cannot be the balance sheet of government alone. It must be the country's households
The second leg is to make electricity the national industrial priority. Nigeria should pursue a diversified electricity system which combines gas, hydro, solar and other power renewables. Generation, transmission and distribution must be treated as one economic chain. Metering must be deliberately completed, and technical losses must fall. Commercial losses must be addressed, and just as investors must have predictable rules.
Thirdly, agriculture must be turned into an industrial system. Nigeria should build agricultural corridors around production zones. Farmers should have access to:
irrigation; improved seeds; extension services; credit; storage; roads; insurance;
processing; and reliable markets.
The objective, however, should not be simply food production. It should be food security plus export competitiveness and industrial raw materials. Education, an all important sector in the national development drive should be made a national emergency and not to make it look like those who advocates that "education is a scam" are right. How can it?
The country cannot have millions of children outside school and expect economic transformation. Foundational literacy and numeracy should become national priorities.
Teacher training should be strengthened, and technical education and apprenticeships should be massively expanded. Universities should be funded increasingly around teaching quality, research and innovation.
The primary healthcare state of Nigeria should be looked into. In the past three years however, the death rate among the nation's citizens arising from inadequate healthcare has become very alarming. Every Nigerian should be able to reach basic healthcare without catastrophic financial hardship. The country needs stronger primary healthcare, maternal services, vaccination, nutrition, sanitation and preventive medicine.
Additionally, Nigeria should begin, in the coming years from now, to industrialize through value chains. Nigeria should identify industries where it has competitive advantages, especially in critical areas like
agro-processing; petrochemicals; fertiliser;
pharmaceuticals; automobiles and components; textiles; construction materials;
digital services; creative industries and solid minerals processing. Government incentives should be tied to measurable results.
The transport revolution should be completed. Road, rail, ports and inland logistics should operate as one system.
Nigeria's economic geography should be reorganised around efficient movement of people and goods. And more importantly, the federation should be reformed. The country needs a more productive federal arrangement. States and local governments should have stronger incentives to build their own economic bases while remaining accountable for public expenditure. Federal institutions should concentrate on truly national responsibilities.
To achieve this, Nigeria must make her democracy to deliver on its citizens expected dividends. Democracy cannot survive permanently on elections alone. It needs
credible elections, independent institutions, rule of law, accountable government, economic opportunity and social justice.
Nigeria's democratic consolidation must therefore include electoral reforms, stronger political parties, judicial independence, legislative oversight and transparent public finance.
A data-driven governance is very much possible and germane as the nation move into the next phase of independent nationhood. The country has spent decades arguing about problems that should be measurable. Every major national target should have a baseline and annual measurement. For example is electricity access; school attendance; learning outcomes; maternal mortality;
jobs created; manufacturing output; agricultural productivity; poverty; road quality; crime; tax revenue; public debt;
and household income. What gets measured can be managed.
THE FINAL VERDICT AT 66
Nigeria at 66 years is neither the country of complete failure nor the country of fulfilled promise. It is a country caught between enormous achievement and enormous disappointment. The nation has survived. It has expanded and has produced world-class professionals, entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, athletes, bankers, engineers, writers and technology innovators.
The country, in 66 years, has built universities, airports, highways, railways, telecommunications networks, banks, industries and a powerful creative economy.
It has also endured war, military dictatorship, corruption, poverty, institutional weakness, insecurity and repeated economic crises.
The tragedy is not that Nigeria has made no progress. It is that the progress has been far smaller than the country's possibilities.
Nigeria has repeatedly reached moments when history appeared to be opening a door — the oil boom, the return to democracy, telecommunications liberalisation, banking consolidation, debt relief, the technology revolution, rising global investment — only to lose momentum through policy reversal, poor governance, corruption or inadequate implementation. Nigeria's 66th anniversary should therefore not become another ritual of patriotic speeches. It should become a national audit. The question should no longer be: "What went wrong?" That question has been answered many times.
The more urgent question is: "What are we going to do differently?" The answer requires a national agreement that some things must cease to be political projects. Education must be national. Power must be national. Food security must be national, just as healthcare. Industrialisation too, must be national like the electoral credibility. Rule of law must be a national project. And development planning must outlive individual presidents.
Nigeria's founding generation did not inherit a perfect country. They inherited a country full of possibility. Sixty-six years later, Nigerians are still living with that possibility.
The task before the next generation is to turn possibility into performance. Nigeria does not need another miracle. It needs competent institutions, disciplined leadership, productive citizens, accountable government and a development strategy that survives politics. The country has spent 66 years searching for the road out of the woods. Perhaps the most important lesson of those 66 years is that the road will not be found by another slogan. It will be built — deliberately, patiently and continuously — by Nigerians.
In one agenda, Nigeria at 66 should should be summed up this: there should be credible elections, rule of law and accountable institutions. There should also be stable macroeconomic policy linked to job creation and rising household incomes. Agriculture should be mechanised, including irrigation, storage, processing and agricultural exports.
There should, in the oil and gas sector, be a transparent production, domestic refining, gas development and investment of oil wealth in diversification.
Power should be reliable electricity as the foundation of industrialisation. Education should offer universal access with measurable learning outcomes. There should be functional primary healthcare and universal financial protection. And the industry sector should be a competitive manufacturing and value addition. Infrastructure should comprise of integrated road, rail, port, water and digital networks, while security of the nation should involve
professional security institutions combined with jobs, justice and social investment.
The digital economy should allow a
technology-driven public services, innovation and exports. Federalism should be made encourage stronger subnational economies and accountable local government. In the area of public finance, there should exist,
transparent budgets, measurable projects and value for money. On the environmental sphere, there should be climate-resilient agriculture, cities and infrastructure, while
nutrition, education, skills and employment from childhood to adulthood must firm part of human capital development.
Nigerian should, henceforth, strive to build a national cultural identity that is so strong enough to accommodate the country's extraordinary diversity. Her greatest wasted resource has not been oil. It has been time.
The next 10 years of the country must therefore be about converting time into productivity, resources into opportunity, democracy into accountability, and Nigeria's enormous potential into a standard of living worthy of its people.
That should be the country's 66 years message! NNL.
