President Bola Tinubu has assured Nigerians that his administration remains committed to far-reaching reforms and long-term national development.
Tinubu spoke in Ikenne, Ogun State, on Friday at the 2026 Obafemi Awolowo Memorial Lecture, organised by the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation.
Represented by Iziaq Salako, minister of state for health and social welfare, the president said the government’s agenda reflected the visionary leadership style of late nationalist Awolowo.
He added that Nigeria today has a leader in Awolowo’s mould, guiding the country through a critical period of reforms. Tinubu described Awolowo as a rare statesman whose courage, intellectual depth and welfare-driven governance transformed the old western region.
He said Awolowo’s tenure as premier from 1954 to 1959 established the region as a development model built on education, healthcare and infrastructure.
“Pa Awolowo was a profoundly wise leader whose ideas and actions placed him among the great thinkers and reformers in history,” the president said. “His introduction of free universal primary education in 1955 remains one of the most consequential policy decisions in Nigeria’s history.
