The African Democratic Congress (ADC) on Thursday attacked the Bola Tinubu-led federal government for the exit of ride-hailing company, Uber, from Nigeria and the closure or scaling down of operations by several multinational companies.
In a statement in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi stated that the development showed that the country had become a “graveyard of businesses”.
The opposition party said the growing number of businesses shutting down, scaling back operations or leaving Nigeria represented a vote of no confidence in the Tinubu administration and its capacity to manage the economy.
According to the ADC, the exit of Uber, alongside the shutdown or scaling down of operations by several major companies, exposed the widening gap between the government’s claims of economic progress and the reality confronting businesses and ordinary Nigerians.
The party said it was particularly astonishing that the Tinubu administration was celebrating what it described as a marginal 0.2 percentage-point improvement in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at a time businesses were closing, jobs were disappearing and millions of Nigerians were sinking deeper into poverty.
“Certainly, a 0.2 per cent growth does not justify the extreme hardship that Nigerians are suffering,” the party said.
According to the ADC spokesman, Nigeria’s poverty rate had risen to 63 per cent, affecting an estimated 140 million Nigerians.
The party challenged Tinubu to explain the significance of the GDP growth to Nigerians who had sunk into poverty, workers who had watched the value of their salaries diminish, businesses struggling with rising energy costs and millions of households forced to reduce both the quantity and quality of food on their tables.
“When the President and his party say things are getting better, we expect them to tell us what has improved in the lives of Nigerians.
“They should tell us how much food their ‘GDP growth’ has put on the tables. They should tell us which bill it has paid. If 0.2 per cent is a mark of success in their books, President Tinubu and the APC should tell us what they consider as failure,” the ADC said.
The party said Uber’s exit after 12 years in Nigeria reflected what it described as the increasingly hostile operating environment confronting businesses, particularly the soaring cost of energy and transportation following the removal of petrol subsidy and the devaluation of the naira.
“This is precisely why the ADC presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has proposed the restoration of a targeted fuel subsidy to bring down the cost of fuel, transportation and production,” the party said.
The ADC also cited an earlier report by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), which it said indicated that 767 manufacturing companies, including 20 iconic global brands, had shut down or ceased operations in Nigeria, while hundreds more were distressed.
It listed companies that had shut down or scaled down their operations in the country to include Microsoft, Jumia and Bolt Food, Pick n Pay, Shoprite, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi-Aventis, Bayer AG, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and PZ Cussons, among others.
“Therefore, when the President announces that Nigeria has turned the corner, we wonder which corner he is talking about.
“If indeed the economy is improving, or the slightest hope exists in the minds of those who run these businesses that this APC government can improve the economy, why are they closing shop and moving elsewhere?” the party asked.
“The painful truth is that Tinubu has turned Nigeria into a graveyard of businesses. Every business that shuts down or pulls out is a vote of no confidence in the Tinubu administration and its capacity to manage the economy.
“Each exit delivers a blow to the economy. But perhaps, more importantly, each one represents a massive loss of jobs and increased poverty,” it added.
Meanwhile, Atiku has welcomed the call by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) for government intervention to reduce petrol prices, saying the association had put Tinubu’s argument against his proposed targeted subsidy policy to shame.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said IPMAN’s intervention was significant because it came from people who buy, distribute and sell petroleum products daily and therefore understood the impact of expensive petrol on businesses and Nigerian families.
“IPMAN has come late to this conversation, but it has come to the right conclusion. The association is now saying that the government cannot simply stand aside while petrol prices punish Nigerians and that deliberate intervention around domestic refining can help bring prices down.
“That is precisely the policy principle President Tinubu and his gang of jesters have spent weeks trying to ridicule.
“Tinubu’s argument has always depended on deliberately confusing the import-subsidy bazaar and a transparent, production-linked intervention that strengthens Nigerian refining and delivers measurable relief to Nigerian consumers, ” he stated.
Atiku argued that there was a fundamental difference between the subsidy regime of the past and his proposed intervention, which he said would focus on strengthening domestic refining capacity.
“Let me put it to President Tinubu in simple English: the difference between the import subsidy and the policy I have put before Nigerians is the difference between a farmer who harvests cassava, sells it all cheaply and then travels elsewhere to buy expensive garri for his family, and one who builds the capacity to process his cassava at home.
“Nigeria produces crude oil. It is economic foolishness to possess the raw material, fail to maximise its processing at home and then tell Nigerians that unaffordable fuel is the price they must pay for reform.
“My principle is simple: subsidy follows the barrel. Strengthen the Nigerian barrel, strengthen Nigerian refining and ensure that the benefit follows that barrel all the way to the Nigerian consumer,” he pointed out.
The former Vice President said his proposal would strengthen domestic refining, expand local capacity, prevent arbitrage and deliver measurable relief to Nigerian consumers.
He said the policy was fundamentally aimed at addressing the rising cost of living, arguing that increases in energy costs had affected transportation, food production, distribution and the purchasing power of Nigerian households.
“That is why my targeted intervention is fundamentally a cost-of-living policy. When energy costs rise, transportation, food, production and distribution rise with them. Making fuel affordable means restoring purchasing power to Nigerian families.
“You do not govern spreadsheets. You govern human beings.”
Atiku also invited IPMAN to participate in the implementation and monitoring of the proposed policy should his administration assume office in 2027.
“I therefore invite IPMAN to join us in an unbreakable contract with the Nigerian people, not merely by acknowledging the principle of targeted intervention, but by bringing its experience, market knowledge and advisory capacity into the monitoring and implementation of this policy when we assume office in 2027.
“The people who buy, distribute and sell petroleum products every day know where distortions occur, where leakages hide and where good policy can be sabotaged between the refinery gate and the filling station. That knowledge must be put at the service of Nigerians.”
He stressed that the proposed partnership was about building an alternative economic future rather than rescuing the Tinubu administration from the consequences of its policies.
“Let nobody misunderstand this invitation. IPMAN is being invited to help us build the future with Nigerians, not to rescue President Tinubu from the economic hole he dug for himself.
“Tinubu had his opportunity. Nigerians cried under transport costs, food inflation and collapsing purchasing power, and his government answered them with lectures about sacrifice. He chose dogma over compassion, propaganda over pragmatism and hardship over humanity,” he added.
Atiku further alleged that the Tinubu administration had entered what he described as “full panic mode” and was plotting to reintroduce subsidy ahead of the 2027 election.
“The strategy is as cynical as it is obvious: impoverish Nigerians for three and a half years, wait until the 2027 election is within sight, then hurriedly return a fraction of the relief you denied them and expect gratitude at the ballot box.
“Tinubu wants Nigerians to forget the pain because an election is approaching. They will not.
You cannot weaponise hardship for years and then deploy relief as campaign material. Nigerians have paid too dearly for this government’s policies to be deceived by an election-season conversion,” he added.
Atiku said the growing support for deliberate intervention around domestic refining showed that the debate was shifting towards affordability, consumer relief and the expansion of local refining capacity.
“IPMAN has not adopted every detail of my policy, and it does not need to. What matters is that one of the most important groups in the downstream petroleum sector has independently arrived at the central proposition Tinubu mocked: deliberate intervention around domestic refining can be used to pursue lower prices for Nigerian consumers.
“The serious policy conversation is moving towards domestic refining, affordability and consumer relief. Tinubu’s propaganda is stranded somewhere behind it,” he explained.
The ADC presidential candidate maintained that his proposed policy would prioritise local refining, transparency, purchasing power and affordable energy.
Chuks Okocha
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