African Democratic Congress (ADC) on Monday accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of being obsessed with the opposition party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, instead of addressing the country’s worsening poverty, insecurity, and cost-of-living crisis.
The allegation came as Atiku dismissed State House’s defence of President Bola Tinubu’s economic record as a desperate attempt to substitute propaganda for performance, insisting that no amount of statistical manipulation can erase the daily suffering of millions of Nigerians under his watch.
In a statement signed by ADC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the opposition party said APC had, “shamelessly latched on” to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s obviously biased comments on Atiku, while attacking Catholic Bishops for speaking truthfully about the country’s terrible condition under Tinubu.
ADC stated that the Tinubu-led ruling party was desperate to shift attention from their “catastrophic” record on the economy, security, and well-being of Nigerians, “which is why they appear more comfortable discussing Atiku Abubakar than addressing the multidimensional crisis into which they have plunged the country”.
According to ADC, ‘’Unable to defend its catastrophic record after the Catholic Bishops laid bare the true state of the nation during their recent meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC has shamelessly seized on comments by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in a desperate attempt to shift the national conversation and shift attention from their terrible performance in the last three years.’’
Abdullahi said rather than answer the Bishops’ concerns about worsening poverty, insecurity, and the cost of living, the ruling party had chosen, instead, “to attack the messengers, whose only offence was that they spoke truthfully and busted their bubble of propaganda and self-deception.”
He said, ‘’This has become a familiar pattern. Whenever respected Nigerians point to the deepening poverty, worsening insecurity, rising cost of living, or the collapse of public confidence under this administration, the APC never answers for its record. Instead, it looks for someone to attack.
‘’Yesterday, it was the Catholic Bishops. Today, it is Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Tomorrow, it will be someone else.
‘’The result is a government that spends more time arguing with its critics than answering the concerns of ordinary Nigerians. What Nigerians have not heard is a convincing explanation for why life has become so much harder under Tinubu and his APC.
‘’Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is entitled to his personal opinion of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Every Nigerian, including former presidents, enjoys that democratic right.
‘’But opinions do not erase records. While President Obasanjo was in office, with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar serving as Vice President and Chairman of the National Economic Council, who also managed and coordinated economic planning between the States and the Federal Government, Nigeria experienced stronger economic growth, greater macroeconomic stability, stronger investor confidence, and a far more affordable cost of living than Nigerians endure today under Tinubu’s chaotic economic policies. Whatever political differences may now exist between the two men, that record remains a matter of public history and cannot be erased.”
Abdullahi stated, ‘’If we are to compare opinion with performance, it would, indeed, be difficult for the APC to find any credible person, including former President Obasanjo, who would argue that this administration has achieved anything meaningful in improving the lives of citizens.
“It is time that the APC and their government took a break from attacking Atiku and the Bishops to answer a few important questions:
‘’Why has the prices of food and basic necessities continued to soar despite proclaimed economic growth? Why have more Nigerians fallen into poverty under your watch than at any other period in Nigeria’s history? Why have you failed to translate your so-called economic growth into jobs? Why have you borrowed more money than any other government in the nation’s history with nothing to show for it?
‘’Why is your government spending 69 per cent of its revenue just to service debts (whereas the World Bank describes any debt service-to revenue above 22.5 per cent as dangerously high). Can the APC explain why communities across the country continue to live under the constant threat of bandits, terrorists, and kidnappers while hundreds are still held in kidnappers’ den?
‘’These are the questions Nigerians expect the APC government to answer as we prepare for elections. But the APC wants the 2027 election to be about personalities because it cannot defend its performance. They want this election to be about Obasanjo’s personal opinion of Atiku based on a distant past because they cannot defend Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s record based on current performance. Ultimately, the election will not be decided by the opinion of any one individual.
‘’It will be decided by the lived experience of more than 200 million Nigerians who are poorer, more insecure, and more uncertain about their future than they were before the Tinubu administration took office.’’
In a related development, Atiku dismissed State House’s defence of Tinubu’s economic record, saying it is a desperate attempt to substitute propaganda for performance.
Atiku said no amount of statistical manipulation could erase the daily suffering of millions of Nigerians.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said it was remarkable that the presidency devoted thousands of words to attacking the opposition “while failing to answer the one question every Nigerian is asking: if the economy is doing so well, why are Nigerians getting poorer?”
He said it was even more ridiculous that the same Tinubu administration, simultaneously implementing the 2024, 2025 and 2026 budgets, was now asking Nigerians to forget the consequences of its economic decisions in earlier years.
According to Atiku’s aide, “As the Yoruba rightly say, the one who defecated yesterday may quickly forget, but the person who cleaned up the mess never does. Nigerians have not forgotten the pain this administration unleashed through the disastrous management of every fiscal year since 2024. Those wounds remain fresh, and no amount of revisionism, selective statistics or government propaganda can erase them.”
Atiku said the presidency’s response was remarkable not for the strength of its arguments but for the contradictions it inadvertently exposed.
The statement said, “The State House celebrates macroeconomic indicators while ordinary Nigerians struggle with microeconomic realities. It speaks glowingly about GDP growth while families skip meals. It boasts of debt ratios while businesses shut their doors.”
Atiku said while the presidency spoke glowingly about supposed progressive tax reforms, GDP growth and macroeconomic recovery, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) painted a grim picture of an economy under severe distress.
He stated, “According to MAN, 767 manufacturing companies have shut down, while 335 others are classified as distressed under the weight of the current economic environment.
“Manufacturers are sitting on approximately N2.14 trillion worth of unsold finished goods, not because Nigerians do not need these products, but because millions of citizens have lost the purchasing power to buy even basic necessities.
“Global companies, such as Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi and Kimberly-Clark, have either shut down or exited local manufacturing operations, while indigenous companies, including Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing, have also been forced to suspend production.
“To make matters worse, local manufacturers spent about N1.11 trillion on diesel alone to keep their factories running after electricity tariffs for Band A customers increased dramatically, further worsening the cost of doing business.”
Shaibu said in the statement, regarding the presidency, “It trumpets reforms while millions of citizens slide deeper into poverty. It applauds statistical improvements while market women, artisans, manufacturers, transporters and young graduates confront an economy that has become increasingly hostile to honest enterprise.”
The former vice president stated that even institutions frequently cited by the presidency haf consistently warned that macroeconomic stabilisation had yet to translate into broad improvements in living standards.
The latest IMF Article IV Consultation acknowledged progress in some reform areas but also estimated that 63 per cent of Nigerians now lived below the national poverty line, while about 27 million Nigerians faced food insecurity in late 2025.
“Those are not opposition figures; they are the findings of an independent international institution often quoted by the government itself,” Atiku stated.
He said, “Governments are not elected to improve spreadsheets.”
Atiku said. “They are elected to improve the lives of their people. Nigerians cannot eat GDP. They cannot cook with debt-to-GDP ratios. They cannot pay school fees with statistical projections. The true measure of economic management is whether families are living better today than they were yesterday. On that score, this administration has failed.”
Atiku said his response would, therefore, address, point-by-point, the major claims advanced by the presidency and demonstrate why no amount of official spin could conceal the widening gap between government narratives and the daily realities confronting millions of Nigerians.
Atiku said the presidency’s first line of defence—that the opposition was relying on 2024 figures—was not only intellectually dishonest but also an admission that the administration wanted Nigerians to develop selective amnesia.
He stated, “The Tinubu administration is asking Nigerians to forget the very policies whose consequences they continue to endure every day. That is both convenient and absurd. The economic shocks unleashed in 2024 did not disappear with the turning of the calendar. Their consequences continue to define the lives of millions of Nigerians in 2026.
“The same government that is simultaneously implementing the 2024, 2025 and 2026 budgets cannot turn around and argue that Nigerians should stop examining the damage caused by its earlier fiscal decisions. Economic policy is not a light switch.
“The consequences of reckless decisions linger long after the announcements have faded.”
The former vice president said Tinubu inherited challenges, just as every administration does, but after more than three years in office, his government must accept responsibility for its own record instead of constantly reaching back nearly two decades to blame previous administrations.
He said, “No serious government can continue governing by looking in the rear-view mirror. Nigerians are interested in today’s realities, not endless excuses about yesterday.”
Atiku said the presidency’s repeated celebration of GDP growth exposed a dangerous disconnect between government statistics and the lived realities of ordinary Nigerians.
He added, “Governments are not elected to improve spreadsheets. They are elected to improve lives. Nigerians cannot eat GDP. They cannot cook with exchange-rate adjustments.
“They cannot pay school fees with macroeconomic indicators. Until economic growth translates into fuller stomachs, lower prices, decent jobs and improved living standards, it remains a failure of humanitarian crisis proportion.
“A debt-to-GDP ratio is only one indicator. Equally important is whether borrowed funds generate productive investments, improve infrastructure, create jobs, strengthen public services and raise living standards. On these measures, Nigerians have every right to ask difficult questions.”
Atiku said while the presidency celebrated debt ratios, Nigerians continued to grapple with unreliable electricity, worsening insecurity, rising unemployment, collapsing purchasing power, and one of the most severe cost-of-living crises in recent history.
Turning to the presidency’s defence of fuel subsidy removal, Atiku said Nigerians had never opposed difficult reforms, what they rejected was hardship without accountability.
He said the Tinubu administration promised that subsidy removal would free enormous resources for infrastructure, healthcare, education, transportation, and social protection.
He stressed, “Three years later, Nigerians are entitled to ask: where are those dividends? Instead of relief, they have experienced the highest fuel prices in history, unprecedented transport costs, soaring food inflation, collapsing purchasing power and an economy where millions now struggle to afford even one decent meal a day.”
He said the federal government could not take credit for higher allocations while distancing itself from the deteriorating living conditions across the country.
Atiku dismissed the presidency’s attempt to describe increased allocations as “true federalism”.
He stated, “True federalism is not simply sending more money to states after unleashing inflation on the entire country.
“True federalism means devolving powers, strengthening institutions, respecting constitutional responsibilities and allowing sub-national governments to become genuine centres of economic productivity.
“Passing the burden of economic hardship to states while the Federal Government continues to centralise power is not restructuring. It is merely devolving pain.”
Responding to the presidency’s claims of unprecedented achievements in the health sector, Atiku said healthcare could not be measured by the number of projects commissioned or facilities refurbished but by whether ordinary Nigerians could obtain quality medical care without being driven into poverty.
He said, “The presidency speaks proudly of revitalised primary healthcare centres, cancer treatment facilities and free caesarean sections. These initiatives are welcome where they genuinely exist and function. But they cannot conceal the broader reality confronting millions of Nigerians.”
Atiku said it was important to remind Nigerians that the Federal Ministry of Health itself informed the National Assembly during the 2025 budget implementation review that only N36 million had been released to the ministry under the 2025 Appropriation Act. “That is not the testimony of the opposition; it is the official position of the government itself,” the ADC presidential candidate stated. “A government that has released such a paltry sum to its health ministry can hardly claim to be leading a healthcare revolution,” he added.
He said it was equally astonishing that the Tinubu administration would cite maternal healthcare as one of its signature achievements when Nigeria continued to rank among the countries with the highest maternal mortality burden in the world.
With maternal mortality estimates ranging between 993 and 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births, Nigeria remains in the company of countries such as South Sudan and Chad on one of the world’s most tragic health indicators, Atiku stated.
He explained, “There is an important distinction between lower inflation and lower prices. Nigerians are not buying inflation rates in the marketplace; they are buying food, medicine, transport and other necessities.
“A reduction in the rate of inflation simply means prices are rising more slowly than before. It does not mean they have returned to affordable levels.”
On the presidency’s repeated attempt to attribute Nigeria’s present challenges to the Obasanjo administration, Atiku said the excuse had become both tired and insulting to the intelligence of Nigerians.
He stated, “President Tinubu has now been in office for more than three years. By the end of his tenure, the Obasanjo administration would have been out of office for over two decades. No serious government can continue blaming an administration that left office 19 years ago for its inability to deliver on its own promises.
“Leadership is about accepting responsibility, not recycling excuses. Every administration inherits challenges. Great administrations solve them; they do not weaponise them as permanent alibis.”
He said: “Under President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria successfully negotiated a historic Paris Club debt relief package worth approximately $18 billion, ending decades of unsustainable external debt overhang and restoring the country’s international financial credibility.
“That landmark achievement was not inherited; it was earned through disciplined economic management, difficult negotiations and credible reforms.
“That administration also implemented banking sector consolidation, liberalised the telecommunications industry, established the Excess Crude Account to save oil revenues for future generations, strengthened Nigeria’s anti-corruption institutions, pursued pension reforms, privatised inefficient state enterprises and expanded private sector participation across key sectors of the economy.
“Those reforms attracted investment, created jobs, restored confidence in the Nigerian economy and laid the foundation upon which subsequent administrations built. History records those achievements. They cannot be erased by political convenience.”
Atiku advised the presidency to spend less time writing lengthy essays defending its record and more time confronting the failures that had made life increasingly unbearable for millions of citizens.
He said, “The true report card of this administration is not written in the corridors of Aso Rock. It is written every day in the markets, on the farms, in the factories, in hospitals, in classrooms and in millions of Nigerian homes.
“That report card is not being written by the opposition. It is being written by the Nigerian people themselves. And its verdict is becoming clearer with each passing day.”
Chuks Okocha
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