Tinubu not dodging responsibility over poverty, says Morka

By Juliet Umeh

The All Progressives Congress (APC) spokesperson, Felix Morka, has said President Bola Tinubu is not avoiding responsibility for Nigeria’s poverty and hunger, arguing that the problems predate the current administration.

Morka spoke on ARISE Television’s The Morning Show while responding to criticism of Tinubu’s remarks at the APC campaign flag-off in Kaduna State. The President had said he was working to address poverty and hunger inherited from previous administrations.

Opposition figures had faulted the comment, saying Tinubu should focus on tackling hardship under his government rather than blaming past leaders.

Morka said the President was placing the country’s economic challenges in historical context.

“He was simply profiling the history of the endemic poverty that we are confronted with in our country.

“Poverty has been with us for a very long time. The President was saying that the problem he is working hard to fix was created by some of those who today see poverty and hunger as though they descended on our country only in the last few years.”

He said previous administrations had also failed to eradicate poverty, adding that the problem could not be resolved instantly.

“All the other presidents who have come before them did not eradicate poverty. They couldn’t eradicate poverty.

“There is no present without a past. The present is only the present because there is a past which this President was referring to,” he said.

Asked about Tinubu’s 2023 campaign pledge to “conquer hunger,” and promises to support food security through agricultural hubs, storage facilities, processing plants and commodity exchanges, Morka argued that campaign goals were subject to gradual implementation.

“When a president or anybody who is campaigning for office gives objectives, they are liable to progressive realisation. They are not an event,” he said, adding that Tinubu had not promised to eradicate poverty within his first months or years in office.

The programme’s hosts challenged Morka to say when Nigerians could expect the President’s campaign pledges to be fulfilled, including a promise to create one million jobs in the digital economy.

“The timeline is for the President to finish the job he has started,” Morka said, arguing that Tinubu was seeking another four-year term to complete his programme.

During the exchange, a host cited figures indicating that poverty had risen from 56.2 percent in 2023 to 63 percent, and argued that the administration’s policies, including the removal of fuel subsidy and currency devaluation, had worsened hardship.

Morka rejected the criticism, saying the administration had taken difficult decisions to address structural problems. He said subsidy removal had improved government revenue and that “a lot of the macroeconomic systems are now looking good.”

The hosts also questioned the administration’s budget performance and asked what Nigerians had seen from the additional revenue. Morka said he had come on the programme to respond to the analysis of the Kaduna campaign rally and promised to return to discuss the President’s record in greater detail.

He described the rally as a success, saying it was intended to bring together party members, leaders and supporters, rather than serve as a policy forum.

“A campaign rally is not a policy dialogue or policy summit,” he said. “The event met its objectives, energised the party base in Kaduna, and we are very thankful to the people of Kaduna for their hospitality.”

Morka also criticised the hosts’ analysis of the rally, describing some critics as “opposition tribesmen dressed as journalists.”

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