Poverty Rate: APC Slams ADC For Misleading Nigerians

BY FELIX MOUKA

It was a matter of national consensus that the fuel subsidy and foreign exchange regimes as operated prior to May 29, 2023 had become an existential threat to the country’s economic survival.

Removing or drastically reforming both systems had long been on the national agenda but previous administrations could not muster the political will to do so, largely, due to concerns about the transient economic hardship the reforms would inevitably impose on Nigerians.

President Bola Tinubu announced the end of fuel subsidy on his inauguration as President, and subsequently harmonized the multiple foreign exchange regimes. These bold and historic policy shifts unshackled Nigeria from the throes of economic stagnation and disintegration and gave our country a fighting chance to build back a stronger, more resilient and prosperous economy.

The African Democratic Congress, ADC’s attempt to spin a recent report presented at the Agora Policy dialogue indicating a rise of poverty rate of 63 percent from 49 percent as a “damning verdict on this administration’s economic policies”, speaks either to its shocking ignorance of economic policy or its willful blindness to the justification for, and transformative impacts of, ongoing economic reforms. Even the report that the ADC sort to cheaply politicize was categorical about the imperative of the reforms meant to correct age-long and crippling structural distortions in the economy.

Clearly, the ADC does not recognize itself as a political party. The ADC has not articulated a single alternative policy position or prescription of benefit to Nigerians. Condemning the APC and its policies has become its operating manifesto with absolutely nothing to offer by itself or by its power mongering leaders.

The ADC continues to wallow in the idea that its empty attacks will somehow endear the party to Nigerians. But Nigerians are, by far, smarter than that. They know the Party that’s working for them and those that are only shooting the breeze and disturbing the airwaves like the ADC.

The fuel subsidy removal represents one of the most consequential fiscal policy decisions in the country’s recent history.

For decades, the fuel subsidy regime placed a devastating burden on public finances, gulping trillions of Naira, upwards of 90 percent of total revenue, annually while delivering limited benefits to ordinary Nigerians.

In reality, fuel subsidy regime enabled widespread inefficiencies, corrupt and fraudulent dealings, large-scale fuel smuggling across borders, enriched middlemen and import cartels to the detriment of Nigerians.

The regime was a gaping fiscal hole that drained resources that are now being redirected to vital sectors such as infrastructure development, education, healthcare and social development under the present APC-led administration.

Often, economic reform entails making difficult choices among competing alternatives or between maintaining an existing but destructive system or instituting an efficient and beneficial system as was the case with the fuel subsidy removal.

Economic reform is never cost-free. It’s not cost-free anywhere in the world and its not cost-free in Nigeria. The transient and now fading hardship experienced by Nigerians were inevitable cost of reforms that are meant to build and guarantee a better future for all Nigerians.

Today, the benefits of the reforms have become more self-evident and Nigeria is better for it. Nigerians understand this and have been stoic and patriotic in their highly valued support of the government and its reforms.

Our economy has rebounded and expanding steadily. The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 4.4 percent last year and projected to expand by 5.5 percent this fiscal year with a foreign reserve in excess of $50 billion, the highest in nearly two decades.

Inflation continues to decline and now trending down towards a single digit. Food inflation is currently at its lowest level in about 13 years.

In 2025, non-oil export reached over $6 billion while subnational and local council governments now receive unprecedented high levels of revenue allocations our country has ever known geared to drive effective governance and accelerated development at those levels. Macro-economic progress made continues to create job opportunities and wealth for our people. Farmers are reaping the benefits of their labour more than ever before.

The administration has introduced and continues to implement a range of social protection measures designed to cushion transient hardships on vulnerable Nigerians.

These include cash transfer programmes, targeted interventions such as student loan facilities, the CNG roll-outs, and broader initiatives aimed at supporting households and strengthening their resilience.

As the administration continues to prioritize social investments, its benefits will reach larger segments of our population.

The APC-led administration of President Bola Tinubu will not relent in its determined effort to rebuild our country’s economy for the good of the present and future generation of Nigerians.

–Felix Morka, CON is the National Publicity Secretary, All Progressives Congress (APC)