No amount of propaganda will erase the hunger and poverty in the land,” Afenifere said in a statement jointly signed by Oba Olaitan and its National Publicity Secretary, Justice Faloye
By Titilope Adako
The pan-Yoruba sociopolitical group, Afenifere, under the leadership of Oba Oladipo Olaitan, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s administration, saying his economic reforms have inflicted severe hardship on Nigerians and worsened poverty across the country.
In a mid-term assessment of Tinubu’s government, the group declared that the reforms had not only failed but “deformed” the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
“No amount of propaganda will erase the hunger and poverty in the land,” Afenifere said in a statement jointly signed by Oba Olaitan and its National Publicity Secretary, Justice Faloye.
The group accused the administration of resorting to propaganda instead of taking responsibility for its “wrong policy choices and wasteful spending.”
“Rather than take full responsibility for the unmitigated suffering inflicted on Nigerians in the past two years due to its wrong policy choices and wasteful spending, the Tinubu administration has engaged in massive propaganda, claiming false successes, shifting blame to global and historical factors, and showing scant empathy for ordinary Nigerians,” the statement read.
The group blamed the hardship on what it described as “unforced errors,” especially the removal of fuel subsidy and naira floatation without adequate preparation to cushion the impacts.
“Basically, due to unforced errors—especially the oversight of the production element of subsidy removal and the floating of the naira without any preparation to cushion the predictable impact—the Tinubu economic reforms have turned out to be Tinubu economic deforms.”
Afenifere backed its criticism with figures, citing the National Economic Summit Group, which revealed that over seven million businesses have shut down since 2023. It also noted a drop in Nigeria’s GDP per capita from $3,222.7 in 2014 to about $806 in 2025.
The group highlighted the “astronomical rise in public debt,” stating that over N100 trillion had been added to the national debt within two years.
On housing, Afenifere lamented a deepening crisis, saying 30 million Nigerians were homeless and 108 million lived in substandard housing.
“The Tinubu administration budgeted for just 20,000 houses in 2025, yet our population increases by over six million people yearly. At that rate, it would take a thousand years for every Nigerian to have a home,” it said.
It further accused the government of living extravagantly while calling on the public to make sacrifices.
“The tone of government at all levels is one of a profligate jaiye jaiye lifestyle, while the masses are being berated about Nigeria’s wasteful past and the imperative of sacrifice to restore fiscal integrity.
“The government’s first supplementary budget and subsequent budgets were spent not only on preserving but also increasing the luxurious lifestyle of those in government—new presidential jet, Cadillac limousines, N160m cars for each federal legislator, and scandalous increases in unaccounted constituency projects worth billions to each legislator.”
Afenifere also condemned the federal government’s refusal to implement the Steve Oronsaye report aimed at reducing the cost of governance.
On security, the group raised alarm over worsening insecurity across the country, citing Amnesty International’s report that over 10,000 people have been killed and nearly 1,000 villages destroyed under Tinubu’s leadership.
It called for urgent restructuring and the creation of state police.
“The Tinubu administration is trading off the lives of Nigerians by refusing to devolve power for the creation of state police. Bandits, kidnappers, and insurgents are on the rise. Two new terrorist groups have also emerged.
The refusal to declare a security emergency and empower states to create police forces places responsibility if not culpability for lives lost since 2023 at the feet of the President,” the group said.
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