ABUJA, Nigeria — President Bola Tinubu has admitted that his administration’s aggressive economic overhauls have taken a severe toll not only on the Nigerian public but also on his own personal health, revealing that he has “lost sleep and weight” alongside the citizens bearing the brunt of the crisis.
The candid admission was made on Sunday at the Bola Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja, during an emotional acceptance speech immediately after he was officially declared the winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary.
While acknowledging the deep public anger surrounding the past three years of sweeping fiscal adjustments, the president firmly defended the measures, stating they were necessary to rescue a nation that he inherited “in tatters.”
Sharing the Collective Anguish
The address marked a rare moment of vulnerability for the president, who sought to connect directly with millions of Nigerians currently grappling with soaring inflation and high living costs triggered by currency devaluation and subsidy removal.
“I know what it takes to reform this nation we met in tatters,” President Tinubu told the gathered crowd of governors, party executives, and singing loyalists. “If you lost sleep, I’ve lost some too. If you’ve lost weight, I’ve lost some too.”
However, the president made it clear that he expects no sympathy, framing the economic hardship as an inevitable burden of the office he fiercely campaigned for. “I’ve always remembered one thing: in 2022, I asked for this job. You all supported me, and I got it. So I must do it,” he added.
A Triumphant Nomination
The backdrop to the speech was a crushing internal political victory. The incumbent secured 10,999,162 votes, decisively winning the APC ticket for the 2027 general election.
His sole challenger, Stanley Osifo, was utterly eclipsed, polling just 16,503 votes across the direct primary process, which spanned all 774 local government areas and 8,809 electoral wards on Saturday.
In a magnanimous gesture aimed at projecting party cohesion, the president extended an olive branch to his defeated rival, publicly stating that he held “no grudge” against Mr Osifo for contesting the ticket.
‘Politics in Earnest’
President Tinubu revealed that after casting his own ballot in Lagos on Saturday morning, he spent the rest of the weekend glued to television screens tracking the nationwide mobilization.
He praised the peaceful conduct of the internal ballot, contrasting it with Nigeria’s historically volatile primary seasons.
“I saw the mammoth crowd in Kano and Kaduna, the city boy walking the streets of Calabar,” the president remarked, noting that the absence of rancour or bloodshed was a source of personal inspiration. “This is politics in earnest. This is where we want Nigeria, facing one focus.”
With the ruling party’s flag and certificate of return now firmly in his possession, President Tinubu has cleared his first major hurdle toward 2027. He must now convince a wider, fatigued electorate that the personal and collective sacrifices of his economic reforms will yield tangible stability before the country returns to the polls.
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