Fellow Compatriots,

I welcome you all to 2026, with gratitude to God and confidence in our collective resolve that this new year will be a more prosperous one for our nation, our citizens, and all who call Nigeria home.

During 2025, we sustained the momentum on our major reforms. We had a fiscal reset and also recorded steady economic progress. Despite persistent global economic headwinds, we recorded tangible and measurable gains, particularly in the economy. These achievements reaffirm our belief that the difficult but necessary reforms we embarked upon are moving us in the right direction with more concrete results on the horizon for the ordinary Nigerian.

Economic progress and outlook

As we enter 2026, our focus is on consolidating these gains and continuing to build a resilient, sustainable, inclusive, and growth-oriented economy.

We closed 2025 on a strong note. Despite the policies to fight inflation, Nigeria recorded a robust GDP growth each quarter, with annualised growth expected to exceed 4 per cent for the year. We maintained trade surpluses and achieved greater exchange rate stability. Inflation declined steadily and reached below 15 per cent, in line with our target. In 2026, we are determined to reduce inflation further and ensure that the benefits of reform reach every Nigerian household. In 2025, the Nigerian Stock Exchange outperformed its peers, posting a robust 48.12 per cent gain and consolidating its bullish run that began in the second half of 2023.

Supported by sound monetary policy management, our foreign reserves stood at $45.4 billion as of December 29, 2025, providing a substantial buffer against external shocks for the Naira. We expect this position to strengthen further in the new year.

Foreign direct investment is also responding positively. In the third quarter of 2025, FDI rose to $720 million, up from $90 million in the preceding quarter, reflecting renewed investor confidence in Nigeria’s economic direction, which global credit rating agencies, including Moody’s, Fitch, and Standard & Poor’s, have consistently affirmed and applauded.

Fiscal discipline and tax reform

A few days ago, I presented the 2026 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly. In that address, I emphasised that our administration has implemented critical reforms that are laying a solid foundation for long-term stability and prosperity. With patience, fiscal discipline, and unity of purpose, Nigeria will emerge in 2026 stronger and better positioned for sustained growth.

As inflation and interest rates moderate, we expect increased fiscal space for productive investment in infrastructure and human capital development. We are also confronting the challenge of multiple taxation across all tiers of government. I commend states that have aligned with the national tax harmonisation agenda by adopting harmonised tax laws to reduce the excessive burden of taxes, levies, and fees on our people and on basic consumption.

The new year marks a critical phase in implementing our tax reforms, designed to build a fair, competitive, and robust fiscal foundation for Nigeria. By harmonising our tax system, we aim to raise revenue sustainably, address fiscal distortions and strengthen our capacity to finance infrastructure and social investments that will deliver shared prosperity.

Security and national stability

My fellow Nigerians, the path of reform is never easy, but it is necessary. We remain mindful that economic progress must be accompanied by security and peace.

Our nation continues to confront security threats from criminal and terrorist elements determined to disrupt our way of life. In collaboration with international partners, including the United States, decisive actions were taken against terrorist targets in parts of the Northwest on December 24. Our Armed Forces have since sustained operations against terror networks and criminal strongholds across the Northwest and Northeast.

In 2026, our security and intelligence agencies will deepen cooperation with regional and global partners to eliminate all threats to national security. We remain committed to protecting lives, property, and the territorial integrity of our country. I continue to believe that a decentralised policing system with appropriate safeguards, complemented by properly regulated forest guards, all anchored on accountability, is critical to effectively addressing terrorism, banditry, and related security challenges.

Inclusive and social development

The new year marks the beginning of a more robust phase of economic growth, with tangible improvements in the lives of our people. We will accelerate the implementation of the Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme, aiming to bring at least 10 million Nigerians into productive economic activity by empowering at least 1,000 people in each of the 8,809 wards across the country.

Through agriculture, trade, food processing, and mining, we will stimulate local economies and expand grassroots opportunities. We will also continue to invest in modernising Nigeria’s infrastructure – roads, power, ports, railways, airports, pipelines, healthcare, education, and agriculture to strengthen food security and improve quality of life. All ongoing projects will continue without interruption.

A call to unity responsibility

To achieve our objectives in 2026, we must all play our part. Nation-building is a shared responsibility. We must stand together in unity and purpose, uphold patriotism, and serve our country with honour and integrity in our respective roles. Let us resolve to be better citizens, better neighbours, and better stewards of our nation.

Fellow Nigerians, I wish you all a peaceful, productive, and prosperous New Year. May God continue to bless and protect our beloved country, keep our troops safe and destroy the enemies bent on disrupting our national peace, security and stability.

Happy New Year to you all.

BOLA AHMED TINUBU

PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

JANUARY 1, 2026

By Ayodele Oni

As the new Tax Law takes effect from Thursday, January 1, a Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has accused the presidency, working alongside the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, of pursuing an ulterior agenda that could worsen the hardship faced by Nigerians through what it termed the reckless enforcement of flawed and legally questionable tax reforms.

The coalition condemned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s insistence on implementing the newly enacted tax reform laws from 1st January, 2026, describing the move as an assault on democracy amid unresolved allegations that the laws were materially altered after passage by the National Assembly.

The CNG unequivocally condemned the posture, which it stated represented an assault on democracy and democratic values.

This, according to the group, was ironically coming from an individual who claims to be a beneficiary and product of democratic struggle.

In a statement issued on Thursday by its National Coordinator, Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, the CNG expressed concern over what it described as credible discrepancies between the versions of the tax laws debated and passed by lawmakers and those eventually transmitted for gazetting.

According to the groups, a review of verified facts, expert legal opinions, and submissions by lawmakers and independent observers indicated that the gazetted versions do not reflect what was approved by the National Assembly.

Charanchi said: “These discrepancies are not minor drafting errors; they are substantive alterations that strike at the heart of legislative authority, constitutional order, and the rule of law.

“This desperate push, despite glaring procedural breaches and widespread public opposition, betrays a governing mindset increasingly detached from democratic accountability, constitutional restraint, and social responsibility.”

Charanchi faulted Tinubu for what it described as a contradiction between his pro-democracy credentials and his current posture, accusing him of ignoring widespread public calls for the suspension and review of the tax laws.

He added, “Rather than heed the legitimate and widespread calls by Nigerians for the suspension and review of these bills, the Presidency has chosen arrogance over dialogue and coercion over consensus.

This contradiction between professed democratic credentials and present authoritarian conduct exposes a dangerous erosion of the very values the President once claimed to defend.

“Contrary to the Presidency’s claim that ‘no substantial issue has been established,’ the controversy surrounding the alleged post-passage alteration of the tax laws remains serious, unresolved, and constitutionally significant.

“Any law altered after legislative approval, without fresh debate and re-passage by the National Assembly, cannot be considered valid under Nigeria’s constitutional framework. To insist on enforcing such laws amounts to executive overreach and a direct assault on democratic governance.

“No amount of rhetoric about ‘structural reset’ or ‘once-in-a-generation reforms’ can justify bypassing due process or imposing legislation of questionable legitimacy on Nigerians.

“This posture only reinforces the suspicion that there is an ulterior motive behind the so-called tax reforms.

“The CNG is equally alarmed by the disgraceful conduct of the National Assembly, which has increasingly abandoned its constitutional role as a coequal arm of government.

“The spectacle of lawmakers openly chanting ‘on your mandate we stand’ during President Tinubu’s appearance in the legislative chamber was not merely embarrassing; it was a public declaration of legislative surrender.

“A legislature that cannot defend the integrity of laws it claims to have passed has forfeited its independence and betrayed the trust of the Nigerian people.

“By failing to assert its authority in the face of alleged alterations to duly passed legislation, the National Assembly has reduced itself to an appendage of the Executive, undermined the doctrine of separation of powers, and weakened democratic accountability.

“This conduct erodes public confidence and sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the foundations of constitutional governance in Nigeria.

“If, as the Presidency insists, these tax reforms are people-centred and designed to strengthen the social contract, one must ask: why the desperate rush to implement them on January 1, 2026, amid unresolved disputes, public skepticism, and open disagreement even among lawmakers?

“Why the obsession with speed when Nigerians are already grappling with severe economic hardship, poverty, insecurity, and unemployment? Responsible governance demands caution, transparency, and consensus, not intimidation and executive fiat.

“Millions of Nigerians are already overstretched by economic distress. Any tax reform imposed through questionable processes will only deepen public resentment, weaken state–citizen relations, and reinforce perceptions of injustice, exclusion, and elite insensitivity.

“The CNG rejects any attempt to railroad Nigerians into compliance with laws whose legitimacy is in doubt.”

Questioning the urgency behind the January 1, 2026, implementation date, the CNG asked why the government was rushing reforms amid unresolved disputes, economic hardship, insecurity, poverty, and unemployment.