The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has urged President Bola Tinubu to accept the World Bank’s latest report showing that 139 million Nigerians are now living below the poverty line, describing it as an “unmistakable verdict” on his government’s failed economic policies.
In a statement issued on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party said the report exposed the widening gulf between the administration’s rhetoric of progress and the everyday struggles of citizens “whose lives and livelihoods have been devastated under the APC-led government.”
The World Bank’s October 2025 report, released on Wednesday, revealed that the number of Nigerians living below the poverty line had surged from 81 million in 2019 to 139 million — or roughly 61 per cent of the population.
While the Presidency swiftly rejected the findings as “unrealistic” and “not reflective of Nigeria’s current economic situation”, the ADC said the government was using “manipulated statistics” to mask the country’s deepening economic despair.
“The World Bank numbers tell a simple but painful story,” the ADC said. “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 accused Tinubu of “whitewashing” the truth in his Independence Day address, where he claimed the worst of the hardship was over. “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,” the ADC said.
According to the party, nearly 30 million Nigerians have now joined the ranks of the “ultra-poor” — those unable to afford sufficient calories even if they spend every naira they earn on food. It said food inflation had spiralled out of control, with the cost of a bag of rice rising fivefold in four years, forcing poor families to spend as much as 70 per cent of their income on food alone.
The ADC also faulted the collapse of Nigeria’s social safety nets, which it said had shrunk from 20 per cent coverage in 2019 to just six per cent in 2025, with public spending on poverty alleviation amounting to a mere 0.14 per cent of GDP — far below the global average of 1.5 per cent.
“While the government celebrates record revenue collection and the illusion of economic stability, Nigerians are actually growing poorer by the day,” the statement continued. “Contrary to the President’s claim, the worst is not over — it has barely begun.”
The party further criticised the government’s use of a domestic poverty threshold of about ₦137,000 per month, or roughly $90, which it described as a “deflated measure designed to flatter the government rather than reflect the true scale of deprivation.”
The ADC called on Tinubu to “end the propaganda” and redirect his administration’s efforts toward food security, job creation, and social protection. “The World Bank report is an unbiased verdict from a global partner,” the party said. “The government must face the truth and make amends before it is too late.”
