After over 11 years of All Progressives Congress rule, President Bola Tinubu, on Saturday, blamed opposition parties and their candidates for “creating hunger and poverty” in Nigeria.

“I hear my opponent talk about hunger and poverty. Who created it? They did. They created poverty; they created hunger and poverty,” Mr Tinubu said at the kick-off of his re-election campaign in Kaduna on Saturday.

Mr Tinubu, who assumed power in 2023, succeeding his party man, late former President Muhammadu Buhari, who served two terms from 2015 to 2023, said he and the present governors were trying to eradicate poverty.

“We are trying to eradicate it (poverty and hunger). We pay salaries regularly. Our governors are working. I’m proud of them. I promise a second term of prosperity,” Mr Tinubu said.

Though the APC wrested power from Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party over a decade ago, it has continually blamed the opposition for Nigeria’s economic woes over the past 11 years.

In the past 11 years under APC administrations, Nigerians have witnessed increased banditry, gunmen’s raids on communities, mass kidnapping of schoolchildren for ransom, widespread poverty and unprecedented inflation.

Since the APC assumed power at the centre, Nigerians have experienced a significant spike in fuel prices, from N87 to over N1,400, while the naira has collapsed from about N400 to a dollar to over N1,350 to a dollar.

Similarly, food prices, transportation costs and the cost of living have risen astronomically over the past ten years under successive APC administrations.

Under Mr Tinubu, Nigeria recorded the largest increase in acute food insecurity globally in 2024, according to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises, published by the Global Network Against Food Crises in collaboration with the Food Security Information Network and UNICEF.

The International Monetary Fund reported that poverty and food insecurity remained high under Mr Tinubu, while the World Bank’s Africa Pulse report of April 2025 also stated that Nigeria had the highest number of extremely poor people globally, warning that more Nigerians would be plunged into poverty by 2027.