Tinubu to terrorists: Surrender or face the full force of the State
…Pledges Largest-Ever Security Budget, Sweeping Power Reforms in Radical Push for Economic Freedom
In a wide-ranging Democracy Day address marking 27 unbroken years of civilian rule, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu issued a fierce warning to bandits and terrorists, “surrender now or be wiped out by the state”.
“These windows of surrender will not remain open forever,” the President warned on Friday during his national broadcast. “No mercy will be shown to those who trade in the blood of Nigerians.”
The high-stakes security warning headlined a speech that aggressively pivoted from celebrating political resilience to confronting Nigeria’s bitter economic realities.
Declaring that the nation’s new defining battle is to “secure economic freedom,” President Tinubu unveiled massive financial commitments, sweeping energy sector overhauls, and a historic rollout of national honors to veterans of the June 12 democratic struggle.
Upgrading the Security Mandate
Acknowledging that the national mood has been heavily dampened by recent student abductions in Oyo and Borno States, Tinubu insisted that “democracy without security is not solid enough.”
To back his aggressive rhetoric, the President outlined a massive structural scaling-up of Nigeria’s military and police apparatus:
Mass Recruitment: Over 50,000 new police officers and thousands of military personnel are actively being integrated to reclaim ungoverned spaces.
Precision Targeting: Moving away from generalized training with Western allies (including the US and France), Nigerian forces are deploying precision strikes, which recently degraded the ISWAP command center in Arege, Borno State.
According to the President, terror-related deaths have dropped by 81% since 2015, with over 13,000 terrorists neutralized in the past year alone.
Power, Pockets, and the N4 Trillion Bond
In a remarkably candid segment of the address, the President took aim at the structural rot plaguing the electricity sector, which he inherited in 2023 as a system “drowning in legacy debt” and starved by a 4-million-meter deficit.
To break the gridlock, Tinubu announced that the Presidential Power Sector Task Force has been authorized to raise a N4 trillion bond to completely wipe out verified legacy debts clogging the energy value chain. Combined with the decentralization power of the Electricity Act and World Bank-backed mini-grids, the administration promised that steady power will finally become a visible “democratic dividend.
“We believe that Democracy must be felt in the pocket,” Tinubu stated, pivoting toward the severe inflation and economic hardships still biting hard across Nigerian households.
He defended his administration’s agonizing economic reforms as painful but unavoidable surgeries required to rescue public finances from total collapse.
He pointed to a 21% jump in non-oil exports and a 10,000-tractor agricultural rollout as proof that the economic tide is turning from “uncertainty to stability.”
Healing History: The June 12 Honor Roll
Rooting his address heavily in the sacred memory of June 12, 1993, and its martyr, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, President Tinubu announced the state-backed renaming of the Institute of Petroleum Studies in Kaduna to the General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua University of Geological Sciences and Engineering Technology.
In a deeply symbolic move aimed at reconciliation and historical justice, the President announced a special national awards list recognizing dozens of activists, journalists, and “soldier-democrats” who faced brutal state persecution, solitary confinement, and exile during the military era.
The extensive honors list features iconic pro-democracy figures, media veterans, and retired military officers, including:
Activists and journalists such as Chief Ayo Opadokun, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, Oladele Alake, Olatunji Bello, Sam Omatseye, and Babajide Kolade-Otitoju.
Late patriots honored posthumously, including Dr. Arthur Nwankwo and Ben Charles-Obi.
Dissident “soldier-democrats” who broke ranks to fight for civilian rule, notably Col. Sambo Dasuki, Col. Lawan Gwadabe, and Brigadier Yahaya Abubakar (the current Etsu Nupe).
We Do Not Break
The President with a rallying cry directed at restless Nigerian youth, urging them to “build here, code here, work here, and vote here”, calling for a total rejection of cynicism.
“The road ahead is steep,” Tinubu concluded. “But June 12 reminds us: Nigerians do not break. We bend, we bleed, but we do not break.”