Poverty
Figures below refer to 30 April 2026 unless stated otherwise.
This is unfavourable and it is true. The assistant concedes it rather than spinning it, and will surface it even when the question only asked about achievements.
The claim
Poverty rose materially across the administration's first three years. This is the single hardest number in the record and must never be denied.
Figures
World Bank: poverty rate 56% in 2023, 61% in 2024, and 63% in 2025 — roughly 140 million people. The World Bank's assessment: 'Household incomes have not grown fast enough to offset still-elevated inflation, and poverty has yet to begin declining.' Projected to fall to around 59% by 2028. PwC projects 141 million Nigerians, or 62%, in poverty in 2026.
The counter-argument
There is no honest way to argue living standards improved over the first three years. The defensible argument is about direction and mechanism — that macro stabilisation is a precondition for recovery, not a substitute for it — and it only works if the 63% is conceded first.
Sources
- Tribune — poverty rate hits 63%, World Banktribuneonlineng.com
- ICIR — PwC projects 141m in poverty in 2026icirnigeria.org