The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has described the World Bank’s October 2025 report “as clear confirmation that the economic policies of the Tinubu-led APC government have ruined the lives and livelihoods of the majority of Nigerians.
The Coalition, therefore, charged the present administration to stop peddling what it called, “Creative Statistics” and start putting the people first by prioritising food security, job creation, and targeted social protection systems that shield the 139 million vulnerable Nigerians that the economic policies have created.
Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, said the report exposed the wide gap between the government’s rhetoric of economic progress and the lived reality of Nigerians, noting that while the administration celebrates increased revenue and meeting revenue targets, more citizens are slipping into poverty at a rate never seen before in Nigeria.
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The party also accused the government of masking its domestic economic failures with creative statistics that paint rosy pictures of economic progress while the people continue to suffer.
ADC said the party has been studying the October 2025 World Bank Report, which states that 139 million Nigerians now live below the poverty line, up from 81 million in 2019.
“That figure, representing 61% of the population, is clear evidence that the economic policies of the Tinubu-led APC government have actually sent more Nigerians into abject poverty, contrary to the government’s performance propaganda and claims of progress.”
“The World Bank numbers tell a simple but painful story: under the APC and President Bola Tinubu’s government, more Nigerians have fallen into poverty than at any other time in our history. In 2019, four out of ten Nigerians were poor. Today, it is, at least, six out of ten.”
The party recalled that President Tinubu, in his Independence Day address to the nation, declared triumphantly that “the worst is over” while bandying statistics which have now been proven to be calculated “whitewash” to serve the government’s narrative of progress.
“However, what is important is the reality that those numbers were meant to hide. Behind President Tinubu’s shiny statistics are the grim realities of historic human suffering: families skipping meals, children dropping out of school, and households selling assets just to buy food and basic drugs to survive.
“Under the APC, nearly 30 million Nigerians have now joined the ranks of the ultra-poor those who, even if they spend every naira they earn on food, still cannot afford enough calories to survive.”
ADC said while the government celebrates record revenue collection and the illusion of economic stability, the World Bank’s data shows that Nigerians are actually growing poorer by the day.
“Food inflation has gone through the roof, with the price of a bag of rice multiplying five times in just four years. Poor families now spend roughly 70 percent of their income on food, leaving nothing for rent, school fees, or medicine.”
“The so-called social safety nets that should protect the vulnerable have also collapsed. Coverage has fallen from 20 percent in 2019 to just 6 percent in 2025. Government support to the poorest citizens is almost non-existent, amounting to a mere 0.14 percent of GDP compared to a global average of 1.5 percent.”
