MY VISIT TO THE MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA Today, I honoured the invitation of the newly inaugurated President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Dr. Eric Okoye, and other former Presidents of the Association to attend his inauguration ceremony at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos. On the sidelines of the event, I interacted with the new President and members of MAN and reiterated the enormous potential of Nigeria’s manufacturing sector. With the right government policies, an enabling business environment, and stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors, Nigeria can significantly increase the contribution of manufacturing to our GDP. Manufacturing currently contributes about 7.5% of Nigeria’s GDP, compared with about 14% in Egypt, 15% in Morocco, 25% in Vietnam, 19% in Indonesia, and 20% in Bangladesh We must therefore deliberately move from a consumption-driven economy to a productive economy, one that produces, creates jobs, adds value and competes successfully in the global market. A stronger manufacturing sector will expand employment opportunities, strengthen our productive capacity, reduce our dependence on imports, increase exports, and improve the standard of living of our people. I congratulate the new President and his team and wish them a successful and productive tenure. I look forward to continued engagement with the manufacturing sector as we work towards building a more productive and prosperous Nigeria. A New Nigeria is POssible. -PO

Today, I was surrounded by cancer survivors, and the encounter was deeply moving. Their presence reminded me what is at stake in cancer care. Behind every statistic is a Nigerian whose survival should never depend on wealth or the ability to travel abroad. Cancer care should not be a privilege reserved for those who can afford it. Nigeria needs at least five fully equipped, specialised cancer centres in each of its six geopolitical zones, alongside stronger prevention, screening, early detection, research and affordable treatment. The goal is simple: no Nigerian should die because care is too far away, diagnosis came too late, or treatment is unaffordable. The survivors reminded me that behind every policy are human lives and the hope of a longer life. Healthcare is not a luxury. Survival should not depend on geography or income. Cancer care should not be a privilege. It should be a right. A New Nigeria is POssible. -PO

Nigeria at 66: Looking Back, Looking Forward Fellow Nigerians, Today we mark the sixty-sixth anniversary of our independence. It ought to be a day of celebration and thanksgiving to God Almighty for the gift of life and for the immense blessings He has bestowed on our nation—our diversity, our abundant human and natural resources, our vast agricultural potential, and the relative absence of devastating natural disasters. It should also be a day of appreciation and patriotism: a day to remember our founding fathers and all those who made selfless, and in many cases supreme, sacrifices for the birth, survival and growth of our dear nation. We must acknowledge the efforts of past and present leaders who have laboured, however imperfectly, to build a better Nigeria. Yet independence anniversaries must never be reduced to mere celebration. They are moments for honest national reflection. We must look back, examine where we stand today, and ask ourselves whether we are moving in the direction our founding fathers envisioned. In national planning and strategy, every serious nation must continually ask three fundamental questions: Where are we today? Where do we want to be? How do we get from where we are to where we want to be? These questions are especially urgent now. Despite the enormous promises made by the APC-led government in 2023, our nation continues to face deepening challenges across virtually every critical sector of national life. Today we stand before the world as a nation: With an extraordinarily large population living in poverty and severe hardship; over 140M With one of the largest populations of out-of-school children in the world; over 18M Where insecurity, terrorism, banditry and kidnapping continue to threaten lives and livelihoods, just recently 37 young Nigerians in their productive age lost their lives Where millions of Nigerians struggle with hunger and food insecurity; over 40M Nigerians will be in extreme hunger by the end of 2026. With unacceptably high rates of infant and maternal mortality; Nigeria today is the worst place to be born. Where youth unemployment and underemployment remain alarmingly high; over 35M Where drug abuse and substance misuse increasingly threaten our young population; today 14% as against global average of 6% Where life expectancy remains among the lowest globally, today 54 years against global average of 74 years And the list goes on. This reality demands serious, sober and honest reflection. Socrates taught that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” By the same principle, an unexamined nation cannot successfully chart its future. We must therefore ask ourselves: Are we cursed, or have we become the curse through the choices we have made and the failures we have tolerated? The answer cannot be that Nigeria is cursed. We are a nation immensely endowed and blessed. Our greatest problem is not a lack of resources; it is the failure to convert our enormous resources into human development, productivity, security and shared prosperity. Only yesterday, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and I returned from a two-day visit to Sokoto State. We held extensive consultations with people from different parts of the state on insecurity, out-of-school children, poverty, youth unemployment, drug abuse and other challenges confronting our people. In concluding the visit, we went to the Internally Displaced Persons camp at Ramin Kura within Sokoto metropolis. What we saw was deeply troubling. Thousands of women and children live in deplorable conditions, displaced from their homes and deprived of the basic necessities of life. Many of the children have no access to education. Mothers and children have limited access to basic healthcare. These are Nigerians who should be living in their communities, going to school, farming their land, conducting their businesses and contributing to the economy. Instead, they live as displaced persons in their own country.