Opposition Slams Govt as World Bank Report Reveals Alarming Surge in Nigerian Poverty
A contentious new report from the World Bank, which indicates a staggering rise in the number of Nigerians living in penury, has sparked a fierce political row, with the main opposition party accusing the administration of economic devastation.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has seized upon the October 2025 World Bank report, which claims that an estimated 139 million Nigerians now exist beneath the poverty threshold, a dramatic jump from 81 million recorded just six years prior in 2019.
The party asserts these figures unequivocally demonstrate that the economic strategies implemented by the Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government have caused irreparable damage to the welfare and livelihoods of the majority of the populace.
In a swift rebuttal, the Presidency has challenged the validity of the statistics, outrightly dismissing them as “unrealistic” and disconnected from the nation’s actual financial environment.
Sunday Dare, Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, took to his official X platform (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday to argue that the World Bank’s poverty count must be “properly contextualised” within the confines of global poverty measurement methodologies.
Despite the government’s denial, the ADC is standing firm on its interpretation. In a statement released and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party maintained that the report lays bare the significant disparity between the government’s celebratory rhetoric of economic advancement and the harsh realities experienced by everyday Nigerians.
The party pointed out that while the current administration highlights achievements such as increased revenue collection and meeting financial targets, more citizens are being plunged into abject poverty at an “unprecedented rate” within Nigeria’s history.
“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,” the statement read. “That figure, representing 61% 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 ADC further levelled accusations that the government is employing “creative statistics” to mask domestic economic failings, thereby crafting a misleading, rosy picture of progress while the citizens endure hardship. “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 ten Nigerians were poor. Today, it is, at least, six out of ten,” the statement continued.
The party also recalled that President Tinubu had recently declared “the worst is over” during his Independence Day broadcast, arguing that the statistics he presented then have now been “proven to be calculated whitewash to serve the government’s narrative of progress.” The political standoff underscores deep divisions over the true state of the nation’s economy and the effectiveness of the current administration’s policies.
