The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticized the economic policies of President Bola Tinubu’s administration following the release of the World Bank’s October 2025 report, which reveals that 139 million Nigerians are now living below the poverty line—an increase from 81 million in 2019.
According to the opposition party, the report confirms that the current government’s economic policies have deepened hardship and worsened living conditions for most Nigerians.
The Presidency, however, dismissed the report’s findings as “unrealistic” and inconsistent with the country’s current economic realities. Sunday Dare, Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, stated via his official X handle on Wednesday that the World Bank’s poverty statistics must be “properly contextualised” within global measurement frameworks.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC maintained that the report exposes a sharp disconnect between the government’s claims of economic progress and the daily struggles of ordinary Nigerians. The party argued that while the administration celebrates rising revenues and fiscal targets, millions more citizens continue to slip into extreme poverty.
“The World Bank report is clear evidence that the economic policies of the Tinubu-led APC government have pushed more Nigerians into destitution, contrary to the government’s narrative of progress,” the statement read.
The ADC noted that the proportion of Nigerians living in poverty has risen from four in ten in 2019 to six in ten in 2025, describing it as the most severe decline in living standards in the nation’s history.
The party also criticized President Tinubu’s Independence Day speech, in which he claimed “the worst is over,” saying that the World Bank’s data tells a different story of deepening hardship—families skipping meals, children leaving school, and households selling assets just to survive.
According to the ADC, nearly 30 million Nigerians have joined the ranks of the “ultra-poor,” those who cannot afford adequate food even if they spend all their income on it. It added that food inflation has soared, with staple prices like rice increasing fivefold in four years, forcing low-income families to spend about 70% of their income on food.
The statement further lamented the collapse of social safety nets, which it said now reach only 6% of the population—down from 20% in 2019. Government spending on social protection, the party noted, has fallen to just 0.14% of GDP, far below the global average of 1.5%.
The ADC also accused the government of using “creative statistics” to mask economic decline, arguing that Nigeria’s domestic poverty threshold—about ₦137,000 per month or $90—significantly underestimates the scale of poverty when compared to international standards.
“A poverty line that is set too low does not protect the poor; it hides them,” the statement said. “The APC cannot fix poverty by redefining it downward.”
Calling for urgent policy shifts, the ADC urged the federal government to focus on inclusive growth through food security, job creation, and targeted social protection.
“What Nigeria needs now is not cosmetic reform,” the party concluded. “We need leadership that puts the people first and acts decisively to protect the 139 million vulnerable Nigerians who have been driven into poverty by ill-conceived economic policies.”
Source:Africa Publicity
