Tinubu Never Promised Immediate End To Poverty, APC Insists

By Omoyeni Ojeifo

Rebutting claims about unfulfilled campaign pledges, the All Progressives Congress (APC) stated that President Bola Tinubu never set a 100-day deadline—or any fixed timeline—for the complete eradication of poverty.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, made the argument during an interview on ARISE Morning Show, monitored by PerSecondNews, while responding to questions about Tinubu’s 2023 campaign promises and his administration’s record on poverty and hunger, on Tuesday.

“The president never told you that in the first month or hundred days of my government, or in the first two years or three years, I am going to eradicate poverty,” he stressed.

Morka argued that Nigeria’s poverty challenges predated Tinubu’s administration, questioning the record of previous leaders, including former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

“Atiku Abubakar was vice president of the Federal Republic for eight years with the former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Now, between the two of them, they had eight years to eradicate poverty,” he said.

The APC spokesman maintained that the administration should not be expected to resolve Nigeria’s longstanding economic problems immediately, describing them as generational challenges.

“We didn’t tell you we had a magic wand to correct Nigeria’s generational problems in one day or in two weeks or in one year,” Morka emphasized.

Morka defended Tinubu’s record on poverty and hunger amid questions over the president’s 2023 campaign promises to tackle hunger, ensure food security and create jobs, and claims that Nigeria’s poverty rate rose from 56.2 per cent in 2023 to 63 per cent.

“This president more than any other president before him has unmistakably done so much more to fix the foundation conditions that’s responsible for the poverty we speak about, for the hunger that we speak about,” he noted.

The APC spokesperson also argued that campaign promises should be understood as commitments to be achieved progressively, rather than guarantees that longstanding national problems would disappear within a fixed period.

He described the fulfilment of campaign promises as subject to “progressive realisation,” maintaining that the administration’s reforms were intended to address the underlying causes of poverty and hunger.

Morka further defended Tinubu’s Kaduna campaign rally, arguing that it was designed to mobilise supporters rather than serve as a detailed presentation of government policies.

“A campaign rally of that kind in Kaduna, it’s not a political dialogue where you expect the kind of stylized speeches to be given,” he maintained.

Morka described the Kaduna rally as a spectacular success and expressed confidence that the APC would secure support for Tinubu’s re-election in the 2027 general election.

He maintained that the Tinubu administration was laying the foundations for tackling poverty and hunger, arguing that the impact of its economic reforms should be assessed against the longstanding nature of Nigeria’s challenges.