Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) defended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s charge that opponents caused hunger by citing past governments, as World Bank estimates show widespread poverty amid reform-related household pressure.
The State House said Tinubu made the accusation at the APC’s 2027 campaign flag-off at Ranchers Bees Stadium in Kaduna on Saturday, Oct. 24. “They created the hunger; they created the poverty,” Tinubu said. EconoTimes previously covered the response from Atiku’s campaign to Tinubu’s hunger claim.
Under the World Bank’s lower-middle-income poverty threshold, set at $4.20 per person per day in 2021 purchasing-power terms, an estimated 69.6% of Nigerians were in poverty in 2025. An October World Bank brief uses Nigeria’s national poverty line and puts the rate at 63% for both 2025 and 2026. The bank said weak income growth among poorer households and the prevalence of low-productivity work weigh on progress. The two estimates use different benchmarks.
Premium Times reported that Felix Morka, the APC’s national publicity secretary, defended Tinubu’s remarks Monday, Oct. 26, on News Central Television’s Breakfast Central. Morka traced poverty’s origins to the PDP’s 16 years in power from 1999 to 2015. He said former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who was vice president from 1999 to 2007, should answer for that record. “Poverty has been with us,” Morka said, according to Premium Times.
Premium Times also reported that Morka acknowledged household purchasing power had fallen and living expenses had risen, while defending foreign-exchange changes and the removal of petrol subsidies. The World Bank’s October 2024 Nigeria Development Update said measures introduced after May 2023 were intended to help steady the economy. It also described near-term pressure on households and businesses during the transition.
Morka characterized vehicles for APC youth leaders as campaign tools rather than rewards, Premium Times reported. In separate reporting, the outlet said First Lady Oluremi Tinubu confirmed a donation to the party’s youth wing; footage posted by youth leader Dayo Israel showed seven Toyota Land Cruiser Prado SUVs. The party is campaigning ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general election.
