The African Democratic Congress lambasted President Bola Tinubu’s government for its cynical celebration of Nigeria’s rebased gross domestic product, while Nigerians suffer unprecedented poverty and hunger during peacetime.

In a statement on Tuesday, signed by Bolaji Abdullahi, ADC described the rebased economy as “a cynical public relations stunt disguised as economic progress”. 

It pointed out that the Tinubu-led government “can’t rebase hunger because Nigerians cannot eat GDP”.

“Economic growth is not about dressed-up numbers that make the government look good. Economic growth means nothing if it leaves the majority of the people behind and is not felt on the dining table and in the marketplace,” the statement said. 

ADC noted that if this is the Tinubu administration’s solution to everything, then it should also try to rebase its way out of the insecurity it promised to end. 

“Rebase the national grid into 24-hour electricity. Rebase the hospitals back to life. Rebase the country away from hunger. And while at it, rebase the suffering of the millions of families it has plunged into poverty.

“The ADC believes that true economic growth must lift the people. It must be felt, not announced. And it must be built, not borrowed. As far as we are concerned, this rebasing is not a triumph. It is a verdict. A verdict on a lost decade of squandered potential, hollow leadership, and broken economic promises,” stated the opposition that just had an injection of former allies-turned-foes of the president.

According to ADC, GDP rebasing is a neutral statistical tool to reflect structural changes in the economy, but in the hands of this government, it has become a mirror, exposing the economic decay and leadership failure of the All Progressives Congress over the years.

The statement added, “Nigeria’s GDP, which stood at $509 billion in 2014 after a previous rebasing, has now collapsed to $244 billion. In a single decade, Nigeria has fallen from Africa’s largest economy to fourth place, now behind South Africa, Egypt, and Algeria. This is not merely a technical recalibration; it is a blunt indictment of a government that has failed to grow what it inherited, let alone transform it.” 

ADC claimed that what “has become clear is that the Tinubu administration is attempting to cover its economic failure with statistical cosmetics” with no real increase in industrial output, boost in agricultural productivity, and no rise in real income, as well as no improvement in electricity, health care, or security. 

“Just bloated, hollow numbers,” said ADC. “While the nominal GDP in naira terms has increased to ₦373 trillion, the figure is largely illusory. It is the product of a steep and poorly managed currency devaluation that has shrunk national wealth and stripped Nigerians of their purchasing power. GDP per capita has crashed from $3,223 in 2014 to barely $1,000 today.” 

The rebasing might make the debt-to-GDP ratio look better on paper, the opposition party noted, “but it does not create room for more reckless borrowing”. 

ADC said what Nigeria “needs is fiscal discipline, something this government has consistently failed to demonstrate, as seen in its bloated, ill-prioritised budgets and wasteful spending amidst a sea of suffering”.