Presidential Speeches

Colonial Governors and Governors-General — Empire Day addresses, the Macpherson consultations, the inaugural of the first indigenous Governor-General.

• 1920-05-24Empire Day address (colonial)

  Empire Day address to school children, Lagos

  Sir Hugh Clifford — Lagos

  Governor Clifford's Empire Day address to Lagos school children — a paradigmatic statement of late-Edwardian colonial pedagogy in West Africa, much-cited in the Macaulay-era nationalist response.

• 1950-01-01Collected speeches (colonial)

  Speeches by the Governor, 1950 (Nigeria)

  Sir John Macpherson — Lagos / regional tours

  The 1950 collected speeches of Governor John Macpherson — the basis for the consultation process that produced the 1951 Macpherson Constitution and the federal architecture of late-colonial Nigeria.

• 1960-10-01Independence Day

  Independence Day Address — 'I am pledged to a destiny'

  Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa — Lagos Race Course (now Tafawa Balewa Square)

  The address delivered on the day Nigeria became a sovereign nation. Balewa spoke after Princess Alexandra handed over the constitutional instruments of independence.

• 1960-11-16Inaugural (Governor-General)

  Inaugural Address as Governor-General — 'Respect for Human Dignity'

  Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe — Lagos

  Azikiwe's inaugural on becoming the first indigenous Governor-General of Nigeria, six weeks after Independence — the address known to history as 'Respect for Human Dignity'.

Independence, the Republic, the January and July 1966 coups, Biafra and No-Victor-No-Vanquished.

• 1963-10-01Republic Day broadcast

  Becoming a Republic — broadcast to the nation

  Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe — Lagos

  Azikiwe's broadcast on the morning Nigeria ceased to recognise the British Crown and became the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He was sworn in as first President of the Republic the same day.

• 1966-01-16Coup broadcast

  'Our enemies are the political profiteers' — Kaduna broadcast

  Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu — Broadcasting House, Kaduna

  Nzeogwu's broadcast on the morning of Nigeria's first military coup. The speech defined the political language of the next four decades — the soldier-as-cleanser.

• 1966-07-29Counter-coup broadcast

  First broadcast as Head of State — 'the basis for unity is not there'

  Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon — Dodan Barracks, Lagos

  Gowon's first national broadcast after the 29 July 1966 counter-coup that killed Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi. The speech famously acknowledged that 'the basis for unity is not there' before pulling back from the brink.

• 1970-01-15End of Civil War broadcast

  'No victor, no vanquished' — end of the Civil War

  General Yakubu Gowon — Dodan Barracks, Lagos

  Gowon's broadcast on the formal surrender of Biafran forces, declaring the war over and inaugurating the policy of Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation (the 3 Rs).

• 1970-10-01Independence Day

  10th Independence Anniversary Address — Civil War recovery

  General Yakubu Gowon — Dodan Barracks, Lagos

  Gowon's first Independence Day address after the formal end of the Civil War, setting out the Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation agenda for the new decade.

Murtala's broom, FESTAC, the 1979 handover to the Second Republic.

• 1975-07-30Coup broadcast / first national address

  Inaugural address — 'A new era'

  General Murtala Muhammed — Dodan Barracks, Lagos

  Murtala's first broadcast after the bloodless coup of 29 July 1975 that ousted Gowon. He set out the public-service purge that became known as the 'Murtala broom'.

• 1976-01-11OAU summit address

  'Africa has come of age' — OAU Extraordinary Summit, Addis Ababa

  General Murtala Muhammed — OAU HQ, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

  Murtala's keynote address to the Extraordinary OAU Summit on Angola — the speech that rebuked the United States, recognised the MPLA, and announced Nigeria's full backing for the Southern African liberation movements.

• 1976-02-13Coup announcement

  Announcement of Murtala Muhammed's assassination

  Brigadier Joseph Garba — Radio Nigeria, Lagos

  Garba's broadcast announcing that General Murtala Muhammed had been assassinated that morning in the abortive Dimka coup. Hours later Lt-Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn in as Head of State.

• 1976-10-01Independence Day

  Independence Day Address — Post-Civil-War Reconstruction

  Lt-Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo — Dodan Barracks, Lagos

  Obasanjo's first Independence Day address as Head of State, eight months after Murtala's assassination — the speech that committed the federal government to Universal Primary Education and the 1976 local government reforms.

• 1979-10-01Inaugural

  Inaugural Address — 2nd Republic

  Alhaji Shehu Shagari — Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos

  Shagari's inaugural after the 1 October 1979 handover by Gen. Obasanjo — Nigeria's first executive-presidential inaugural under the 1979 Constitution.

War Against Indiscipline, SAP, the annulment of June 12, and the transition that produced the Fourth Republic.

• 1984-01-01Coup broadcast

  Coup broadcast — 31 December 1983 / 1 January 1984

  Major-General Muhammadu Buhari — Dodan Barracks, Lagos

  Buhari's first national address after the 31 December 1983 coup that toppled the Shagari government. The address inaugurated the War Against Indiscipline.

• 1985-08-27Coup broadcast

  'A few bad eggs' — coup broadcast against Buhari

  Major-General Ibrahim Babangida — Dodan Barracks, Lagos

  IBB's broadcast on the morning of the palace coup that displaced the Buhari–Idiagbon administration. He announced the title of 'President' (not Head of State) and a transition programme.

• 1993-08-26Interim Government address

  Interim National Government — first address

  Chief Ernest Shonekan — Aso Rock, Abuja

  Shonekan's first national address as Head of the Interim National Government, the same day Babangida 'stepped aside'. The ING would last 83 days before Abacha's palace coup of 17 November 1993.

• 1993-08-26Resignation broadcast

  'I am stepping aside'

  General Ibrahim Babangida — Aso Rock, Abuja

  IBB's broadcast announcing his departure from office after annulling the 12 June 1993 election. He installed an Interim National Government under Chief Ernest Shonekan.

• 1993-11-17Coup broadcast

  Military Takeover Declaration — 17 November 1993

  General Sani Abacha — Dodan Barracks, Lagos

  Abacha's first national address after the palace coup that removed Shonekan's Interim National Government — the opening act of the most repressive military regime in Nigerian history.

• 1995-10-01Independence Day

  1 October 1995 broadcast — the three-year transition

  General Sani Abacha — Aso Rock, Abuja

  Abacha's Independence Day broadcast unveiling a three-year transition to civil rule — the framework that would, a year later, become the platform for his self-succession candidacy.

• 1998-06-08First national address

  First broadcast as Head of State — 'a transition we shall honour'

  Major-General Abdulsalami Abubakar — Aso Rock, Abuja

  Abubakar's first broadcast after the death of Sani Abacha that morning. He inherited the discredited five-party self-succession transition and within a month scrapped it, replacing it with the timetable that produced the Fourth Republic.

• 1999-05-29Inaugural

  Inaugural Address — Return to civil rule

  Chief Olusegun Obasanjo — Eagle Square, Abuja

  Obasanjo's inaugural after the 27 February 1999 election — the address that opened the Fourth Republic and the longest unbroken period of civilian rule in Nigerian history.

Obasanjo, Yar'Adua, Jonathan, Buhari, Tinubu — the longest unbroken civilian era in Nigerian history.

• 2007-05-29Inaugural

  Inaugural Address — Servant-Leader

  Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua — Eagle Square, Abuja

  Yar'Adua's inaugural after the controversial April 2007 election. He famously acknowledged the flaws of the election that brought him to power.

• 2011-05-29Inaugural

  Inaugural Address — 'A breath of fresh air'

  Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan — Eagle Square, Abuja

  Jonathan's inaugural after the April 2011 election — the first time a Nigerian president of southern minority extraction won a full term in his own right.

• 2015-03-31Concession

  Concession call to Muhammadu Buhari — 31 March 2015

  Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan — Aso Rock, Abuja (telephone)

  Jonathan's concession to opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari — the first time in Nigerian history that a sitting president conceded defeat. Six words that arguably saved the Republic.

• 2015-05-29Inaugural

  Inaugural Address — 'I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody'

  Muhammadu Buhari — Eagle Square, Abuja

  Buhari's inaugural after the historic 28 March 2015 election in which the opposition unseated an incumbent for the first time. The address is remembered for one line.

• 2019-05-29Inaugural (2nd term)

  Second-term Inaugural Address — 'Next Level'

  Muhammadu Buhari — Eagle Square, Abuja

  Buhari's address on the start of his second term. Three planks: security, economy, anti-corruption — under the Next Level platform.

• 2023-05-29Inaugural

  Inaugural Address — 'Subsidy is gone'

  Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu — Eagle Square, Abuja

  Tinubu's inaugural after the 25 February 2023 election. One unscripted line — 'subsidy is gone' — triggered the largest cost-of-living shock since the 1986 SAP.

• 2024-10-01Independence Day

  64th Independence Anniversary Broadcast

  Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu — Aso Villa, Abuja

  Tinubu's Independence Day broadcast following the August 2024 #EndBadGovernance protests.

• 2025-10-01Independence Day

  65th Independence Anniversary Broadcast

  Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu — Aso Villa, Abuja

  Tinubu's third Independence Day broadcast — Renewed Hope, tax reform, and Sahel security.