By Osaretin Osadebamwen
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has dismissed the State House’s lengthy defence of President Bola Tinubu’s economic record as a desperate attempt to substitute propaganda for performance, insisting that no amount of statistical manipulation can erase the daily suffering of millions of Nigerians.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said it was remarkable that the Presidency devoted thousands of words to attacking the opposition while failing to answer the one question every Nigerian is asking: If the economy is doing so well, why are Nigerians getting poorer?
He said it was even more ridiculous that the same Tinubu administration that is simultaneously implementing the 2024, 2025 and 2026 budgets is now asking Nigerians to forget the consequences of its economic decisions in earlier years.
“As the Yoruba rightly say, the one who defecated yesterday may quickly forget, but the person who cleaned up the mess never does. Nigerians have not forgotten the pain this administration unleashed through the disastrous management of every fiscal year since 2024. Those wounds remain fresh, and no amount of revisionism, selective statistics or government propaganda can erase them.”
Atiku said the Presidency’s response was remarkable not for the strength of its arguments but for the contradictions it inadvertently exposed, celebrating macroeconomic indicators while ordinary Nigerians struggle with microeconomic realities.
The former Vice President noted that even institutions frequently cited by the Presidency have consistently warned that macroeconomic stabilisation has yet to translate into broad improvements in living standards.
The latest IMF Article IV Consultation acknowledged progress in some reform areas but also estimated that 63 per cent of Nigerians now live below the national poverty line, while about 27 million Nigerians faced food insecurity in late 2025.
“Governments are not elected to improve spreadsheets,” Atiku said. “They are elected to improve the lives of their people. Nigerians cannot eat GDP. They cannot cook with debt-to-GDP ratios. They cannot pay school fees with statistical projections.”
Atiku said the Presidency’s first line of defence—that the opposition is relying on 2024 figures—is intellectually dishonest and an admission that the administration wants Nigerians to develop selective amnesia about policies whose consequences they continue to endure every day.
The former Vice President said President Tinubu inherited challenges, just as every administration does, but after more than three years in office, his government must accept responsibility for its own record instead of constantly reaching back nearly two decades to blame previous administrations.
He noted that the Presidency’s repeated celebration of GDP growth exposes a dangerous disconnect between government statistics and the lived realities of ordinary Nigerians, as the purchasing power of the average citizen has not increased.
Responding to the Presidency’s argument that Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio remains moderate, Atiku said the government had deliberately avoided the real issue of whether borrowed funds generate productive investments, improve infrastructure, create jobs and raise living standards.
Turning to the Presidency’s defence of fuel subsidy removal, Atiku said Nigerians have never opposed difficult reforms, but they reject hardship without accountability, asking where the gains from subsidy removal are three years later.
He noted that while the Presidency celebrated increased allocations to states and local governments, these increased allocations must translate into visible improvements in the lives of citizens, which has not happened.
Atiku dismissed the Presidency’s attempt to describe increased allocations as “true federalism,” arguing that true federalism means devolving powers and strengthening institutions, not merely devolving pain to states.
Responding to the Presidency’s claim that its tax reforms are progressive, Atiku said no tax policy can succeed in an economy where businesses are already struggling to survive under record energy costs and multiple taxes.
He described the Presidency’s explanation on the so-called oil windfall as the most revealing part of its entire response, as it admitted that substantial volumes of Nigeria’s crude have already been committed under opaque financing arrangements.
Responding to the Presidency’s claims of unprecedented achievements in the health sector, Atiku said healthcare cannot be measured by the number of projects commissioned but by whether ordinary Nigerians can obtain quality medical care without being driven into poverty.
He noted that the Federal Ministry of Health itself informed the National Assembly that only ₦36 million had been released under the 2025 Appropriation Act, hardly evidence of a healthcare revolution.
The former Vice President described the Presidency’s reliance on NELFUND as proof of educational transformation as misleading, arguing that student loans alone do not constitute education reform when millions of children remain out of school.
Atiku said the Presidency’s argument that inflation has moderated was technically accurate but economically misleading, as a reduction in the rate of inflation simply means prices are rising more slowly, not that they have returned to affordable levels.
He challenged the Presidency’s reliance on cash transfers as evidence that reforms are protecting vulnerable Nigerians, insisting that public policy must be judged by outcomes, not announcements.
Responding to the Presidency’s repeated attempt to attribute Nigeria’s present challenges to the Obasanjo administration, Atiku said the excuse had become both tired and insulting, as President Tinubu has now been in office for more than three years.
Atiku noted that while the Presidency speaks glowingly about progressive tax reforms and GDP growth, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has reported that 767 manufacturing companies have shut down, while 335 others are classified as distressed.
He concluded that no government can credibly claim its economic policies are succeeding while the productive engine of the economy is grinding to a halt, stating that the true verdict on this administration’s economic policies is written in the silent factories and empty pockets of millions of Nigerians.
