ADC To Tinubu: World Bank Report Is “A simple But Painful Story” Of What Nigerians Are Facing

The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to accept the recent verdict of the World Bank, to the effect that his government reforms has thrown close to 140 million Nigerians into deep poverty.

The president must accept the current situation in the country, and stop covering up the reality by churning out figures that do not reflect what Nigerians are facing, the ADC said on Thursday.

Bolaji Abdullahi, ADC National Publicity made the remark on Thursday in a post he shared on X, saying the Tinubu’s administration is merely grandstanding, by churning out figures that all is currently well in the country.

Abdullahi was reacting to the Presidency’s reaction to the World Bank Wednesday’s reports, to the effect that 139 million Nigerians have been driven below the poverty lines since administration came to power, and introduced series of economic reforms.

Sunday Dare, a presidential spokesman had dismissed the World bank report, to the effect that the administration has grown raised the poverty figures from 81 million in 2019to 139 million in 2025, saying the report was not properly contextualized and unrealistic to the current situation in the country.

But the ADC said the administration is just trying to cover up by releasing false images that all is well, stressing that the “World Bank numbers tell a simple but painful story” that more than half of the country’s population have been thrown into abject poverty.

The party said the administration should take practical steps to address what the World Bank said instead of mere sloganeering.

Abdullahi: “The African Democratic Congress 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 per cent 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 10 Nigerians were poor. Today, it is, at least, six out of 10.

“We recall that President Tinubu, in his recent 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.

I “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 six percent in 2025. The government’s support for 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.

“What all this means is that Nigerians are worse off under the APC and President Bola Tinubu’s government. And contrary to the President’s claim, the worst is not over; instead, it appears that the worst has actually not arrived. Rather than continuing to dig in to defend its propaganda, the government should accept the unbiased verdict from its partner, the World Bank, and try to make amends before it is too late.

“To make matters worse, the government’s entire approach to poverty measurement now seems designed to flatter itself rather than to help the poor. Nigeria’s domestic poverty threshold, roughly N137,000 per month, or about $90, sits far below the global real-value benchmark. By using a deflated local measure, the government effectively undercounts millions of poor Nigerians.”

The ADC, the magazine reports, is the party adopted by key opposition figures in the country to contest the 2027 election against the ruling APC.