ABUJA — African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has launched a sweeping attack on President Bola Tinubu’s declaration that Nigeria has entered an “age of prosperity”, arguing that improving statistics mean little to millions still struggling to afford food, transport, healthcare and other basics.
In an Independence Day address at the ADC headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, marking Nigeria’s 66th anniversary, the former Vice President took aim at the President’s national broadcast earlier in the day, in which Tinubu declared that the “emergency treatment is over” and that the country was moving to “shared and widespread prosperity”.
Atiku’s response was direct: “Bola, where is this prosperity?”
The true measure of recovery, he argued, is not GDP, revenue, exports or falling inflation, but what wages can buy and whether ordinary Nigerians can afford food, transport, medicine and education.
“The past three years under Bola Tinubu have plunged Nigeria into the most severe cost-of-living crisis in our history,” he said.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) puts GDP growth at 4.43 per cent in the second quarter of 2026, and headline inflation eased to 15.39 per cent in August. The Nigerian Export Promotion Council says non-oil exports hit $6.1 billion in 2025.
Atiku countered that slower inflation does not restore purchasing power already lost. In April 2023, he said, the ₦30,000 minimum wage bought about 118 litres of petrol; today, the ₦70,000 minimum wage buys about 50. NBS put the average pump price at ₦254.06 a litre in April 2023; NNPC now sells at between ₦1,385 and ₦1,456, depending on the state. An egg, he said, has risen from about ₦88 to ₦261, and a sliced loaf from about ₦500 to roughly ₦2,000 — for a smaller loaf.
He renewed his proposal for a capped, budgeted production subsidy on petrol refined in Nigeria, including by modular refineries, with imported fuel excluded and payments published and independently audited.
Tinubu, in his broadcast, rejected calls to restore subsidies, dismissing their advocates as “regressive” voices. Atiku retorted that branding relief an addiction would not lower the price of petrol.
On transport, Atiku challenged the government’s promise of cheaper fares from October 1. Tinubu had directed states on September 19 to deliver measurable cuts in transport costs from that date under the National Affordable CNG Transit Programme. On Wednesday, the Presidential Initiative on CNG’s chairman, Ismaeel Ahmed, said fares had already fallen on some CNG and electric bus routes in Lagos, Enugu and the FCT.
Atiku called the cuts welcome but far from enough, and demanded that the government publish every affected route, the old and new fares, and the number of commuters benefiting. “Nigerians cannot board an announcement,” he said.
He also questioned borrowing and budget management. Public debt stood at ₦166.79 trillion at June 30, 2026, according to the Debt Management Office, up from ₦159.35 trillion three months earlier. On Wednesday, Tinubu signed a fourth extension of the 2025 budget’s capital component, to December 31, 2026. Atiku said running two budgets side by side raised questions about transparency and project delivery.
He demanded an auditable account of the conditional cash-transfer programme after APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda said on Saturday that more than 10 million vulnerable Nigerians had received ₦75,000 each — at least ₦750 billion — and that many had no phones or social media. Atiku asked how such beneficiaries were identified and paid, without exposing their identities.
He mourned three people, including a mother and her daughter, killed in a stampede at the Niger State Government House in Minna on Tuesday after reports that ₦10,000 would be shared.
Beyond the economy, Atiku said a government that can neither make life affordable nor keep its people safe has failed the two tests that matter most. He questioned the continued detention of Nasir El-Rufai and Sheikh Sani Khalifa Zaria, and said Nnamdi Kanu’s right to appeal must be respected.
He renewed his call for the release of five men arrested in Maiduguri, Borno State, over “Tinubu Must Go” T-shirts. Police have charged them with conspiracy, inciting disturbance, disturbing public peace and thuggery. Atiku said those allegations must be tested fairly. A bail ruling is due on October 6.
He pledged that an ADC government would respect INEC’s independence, support prompt publication of polling-unit results, and prosecute vote-buyers and result-riggers, including those in his own party.
Urging Nigerians to question every candidate, himself included, he closed with a three-word verdict: “Tinubu must go.”
Tinubu says the painful reform period has laid the foundation for prosperity. Atiku’s challenge is that millions of Nigerians are still waiting for it to arrive.
