Mr Tinubu made the appeal in a nationwide broadcast on Friday to mark the 2026 Democracy Day celebration
President Bola Tinubu has urged young Nigerians troubled about the state of the country not to ‘abandon ship.’
The Nigerian leader spoke in a televised broadcast on Friday to mark this year’s Democracy Day.
“To our young people: Nigeria is your home and your future. Build here, code here, work here, and vote here. Every great nation was built by those who stayed to solve problems, not by those who abandoned ship,” the Nigerian leader said.
In the rest of his national broadcast, Mr Tinubu urged young Nigerians to view their role in nation-building as a continuation of earlier struggles for independence and democratic governance, while stressing that their own mandate is to secure economic freedom.
He said that while previous generations fought for political independence and the entrenchment of democracy, the defining challenge for today’s youth is to ensure that democracy translates into tangible economic opportunities.
Mr Tinubu noted that democracy is weakened when citizens do not feel its impact in their daily lives.
According to him, his administration’s central objective is to expand opportunities for young people so that the benefits of democracy are “felt in the pocket” of every Nigerian.
The president also urged young Nigerians to reject cynicism, division and despair, which he said fuel the ongoing migration trend popularly referred to as japa.
He called on them to move forward with confidence and work collectively to address the country’s challenges from within.
Thousands of young Nigerian professionals leave the country yearly for greener pastures, a phenomenon popularly called Japa.
Reports by PREMIUM TIMES over the last three years show that this migration has turned from a personal choice into a massive national crisis. It has left critical sectors across the country deeply short of workers.
In 2023, an opinion piece by PREMIUM TIMES warned that Nigeria was losing the exact talent it needed to build its future. Prominent scholars also noted in the piece blamed the flight of intellectuals on poor leadership and bad governance.
By 2024, the crisis spread heavily into universities.
A report by PREMIUM TIMES showed that public universities were actually losing lecturers faster than hospitals were losing doctors. This left classrooms empty and dropped the quality of education.
In 2025, the healthcare sector hit a breaking point.
Investigations revealed that over 75,000 health workers had left the country in recent years. This forced states like Kwara to raise major alarms over a lack of doctors. Even the oil and gas sector started complaining about a severe shortage of engineers.
However, PREMIUM TIMES noted a strange twist. While the exit ruined local services, it helped the economy. Migrants sent home over $20 billion every year, helping families survive high inflation.
By 2026, the government had to jump into damage control. For example, Delta State recently recruited new health workers at once to fill empty slots.
While the government claims its new economic reforms will fix the country, the ongoing flight of techies, engineers, and teachers shows that young people are still desperate to leave.
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