The All Progressives Congress says that President Bola Tinubu is campaigning for re-election because he has outperformed all democratically elected presidents in Nigeria.

Felix Morka, spokesperson for the APC, said in an interview with Channels TV on Monday that the APC’s campaign for Mr Tinubu’s re-election is based on his performance.

Asked on what basis the APC would sell its presidential candidate to Nigerians during the campaign, Mr Morka said his party would campaign “On the basis that President Bola Tinubu has outperformed any democratically elected president in this country in his first term.”

The APC spokesperson said, “This president inherited ane economy that was completely in a mess.”

But when reminded that Mr Tinubu succeeded his fellow APC party man, former President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Morka said the country “has been in a mess from generational concession.

He added, “I’ve said it that Buhari was a stopgap president who came to keep the country from tipping over the precipice of sixteen years of horrific maladministration of the PDP government.”

Promising change focused on anti-corruption, the fight against insecurity and poverty alleviation, the APC ousted the PDP in the historic 2015 election.

Though the APC wrested power from Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP a decade ago, it has continually blamed the PDP for Nigeria’s economic woes in the past 11 years.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari, who succeeded Mr Jonathan, served two terms of eight years before handing over to his fellow party man, Bola Tinubu, on May 29, 2023, two years ago.

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 N1,300, while the naira has collapsed from about N400 to a dollar to over N1,350 to a dollar.

Similarly, food prices, the cost of transportation and the cost of living have risen astronomically in the past 10 years under successive APC regimes.

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 has the highest number of extremely poor people globally, warning that more Nigerians will be plunged into poverty by 2027.