The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has warned that re-electing President Bola Tinubu in the forthcoming 2027 Presidential election will further Impoverish Nigerians.
The party, in a press statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said this is predicated on the recent World Bank report that 139 million Nigerians now live below the national poverty line.
According to the ADC, the report is consistent with a similar report by the World Food Programme (WFP) that 17 million Nigerians are now living with acute hunger, with the worst food security crisis the country has experienced in nearly a decade.
This, the party stated, is evident that the All Progressives Congress (APC) “administration’s economic policies have failed and are likely to deliver even more catastrophic consequences if President continues in office beyond 2027 with reported 79% or nearly 200 million of the population nearing poverty.”
It accused the president of adopting neoliberal economic policies that have ruined the lives of almost the entire country, and called on him to resign.
The ADC said the economic growth, increased revenue, and rising foreign reserves that the Tinubu-led APC government continues to celebrate are meaningless if they do not translate into better lives for the people or protect their livelihoods.
The party said what Nigeria needs is a president and a government that truly understand how the people feel and genuinely care about them.
ADC warned that the cycle of temporary interventions and emergency responses, which it said, defined the APC’s economic policies in the name of social intervention programmes, are not acceptable to Nigerians.
“Poverty cannot be defeated through palliatives. It can only be defeated by building an economy that enables Nigerians to produce more food, earn decent incomes, and live with dignity,” theparty stated.
ADC promised to pursue structural reforms that address the root causes of hunger, if it forms the next government.
This, according to party, includes reduction in energy cost, increase domestic food production, building of an integrated national food economy and investing in the Nigerian people.
“We will secure farming communities and agricultural corridors so that farmers can return to their land without fear, cultivate throughout the farming season and transport their produce safely and affordably to markets.
“No nation can achieve food security while insecurity keeps farmers away from their farms,” ADC noted, adding that it would rehabilitate Nigeria’s 264 abandoned dams and bring them back to productive use, to expand year-round irrigation across farming communities.
