Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has expressed grave concern over the latest World Bank Nigeria Development Update, which reveals that Nigeria’s poverty rate has surged to 63 per cent in 2025, up from 56 per cent in 2023. The report, titled ‘Nigeria’s Tomorrow Must Start Today: The Case for Early Childhood Development’, highlights the alarming rise in poverty affecting approximately 140 million Nigerians, even as some macroeconomic indicators such as inflation show signs of moderation.
In a statement issued in Abuja by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku Abubakar described the figures as a damning indictment of the current administration’s economic policies.
“We note with grave concern the World Bank’s confirmation of what millions of Nigerians are already experiencing daily that poverty is rising at an alarming rate under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” Atiku said.
“With over 60 per cent of Nigerians now living below the poverty line, up from about 40 per cent just a few years ago, this is not reform; it is regression on a monumental scale.”
Atiku criticised the government’s approach as “poorly conceived and harshly implemented policies,” citing the abrupt removal of fuel subsidies and the chaotic devaluation of the naira, both executed without adequate safeguards for ordinary citizens.
“Even the World Bank has acknowledged the troubling paradox of rising poverty amid so-called reforms, exposing a government dangerously disconnected from the lived realities of its citizens,” he added. “A government that presides over a situation where the majority of its people are poor, yet insists that progress is being made, has lost both moral authority and economic direction.”
The former Vice President warned that food prices have spiralled out of control, small businesses are collapsing, and millions more Nigerians are being pushed into extreme poverty as a direct result of what he termed “economic shock therapy imposed on a vulnerable population.” He stressed that leadership is not about defending failure but about correcting it.
“Nigeria cannot continue on a path where poverty deepens while the government celebrates policy experiments,” Atiku declared. “The choice before the nation is stark: continue on a trajectory of deepening hardship, or embrace leadership committed to restoring dignity, stability and shared prosperity.”
Atiku called for a fundamental shift towards carefully sequenced reforms, robust social protection measures, job creation, food security, and policies that genuinely improve the welfare of all citizens rather than exacerbate hardship.