•Says 27 of 36 states struggled to pay workers’ salaries before current govt
•Idris discloses 97% of revenue went into debt servicing
•ADC to Tinubu: Your revenue claims based on lies
•Insists 5% petrol tax cruel, 300% passport price hike insensitive
Chuks Okocha and Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
The federal government yesterday continued to knock imputations by a section of the country that President Bola Tinubu’s administration was favouring a part of the country against others, insisting that all the government’s ongoing projects were cited, not on the basis of politics, but in the nation’s interest.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, ruled out political motives as the main driver of Tinubu’s development agenda, declaring this in Abuja while receiving Commissioners for Information from the 36 states of the Federation during a courtesy visit to his office.
Rather, he said the President is spurred by national interests, with transformative projects and programmes being rolled out across every state of the federation without favour or partisanship.
Separately, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) yesterday accused the Tinubu administration of deceiving Nigerians with false revenue claims, citing a N21.22 trillion shortfall between the 2025 budget projection and actual collections, despite the government’s claim of meeting revenue targets.
However, in a statement, Idris, who was joined at the parley by Special Adviser to the President of Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga; Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, Mr. Sunday Dare and Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media Affairs, Mr. Tunde Rahman, explained that the President was motivated by the conviction that the challenges confronting Nigerians know no political boundaries.
“I have not seen where there are things to do and the President refused to do because the governor of that state is not in the APC. In everything that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done, the focus has always been on the ordinary Nigerians,” Idris said.
He reiterated that the President’s landmark fuel subsidy removal has unlocked unprecedented revenues for all states of the federation, empowering them to execute life-changing projects that directly improve the welfare of their people.
According to the minister, the freeing up of resources through the removal of fuel subsidies has enabled governors to embark on projects, delivering the dividends of democracy to their people. “I have not seen one governor, whether in our party or any other party, who has said that we should reverse and go back to the status quo,” he added.
Idris noted that before Tinubu assumed office, 27 of the 36 states struggled to pay workers’ salaries, while a staggering 97 per cent of the federal government’s revenue went into debt servicing.
The minister asserted that due to the bold policy reforms of the President and his creative approach to governance, these grim realities have now been decisively reversed, restoring fiscal stability and freeing resources for development.
He urged state governments to key into the President’s vision and mission so that the dividends of prosperity can be felt in every nook and cranny of the country.
Idris said: “Nigeria is on a journey towards enduring prosperity for everyone and my message and the message we have for all of you is that come and join this train to take Nigeria to the destination that Mr. President promised he is going to take it to and that all of you want to see at the end of the day”.
He proposed the institutionalisation of regular meetings between the commissioners and the ministry’s delegation to continually compare notes and coordinate strategies for taking the message of hope and prosperity to all parts of the country.
The minister also urged the commissioners to consistently utilise public information organs at their disposal in the states, in order to drive community engagement and public sensitisation.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Information of Borno State, who chairs the Commissioners for Information Forum, Prof. Usman Tar, said they had agreed to form a common platform across party lines to promote national interest, values, orientation, unity and integration of the country.
Others at the meeting included the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, Mr Ogbodo Nnam; the Director General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Malam Abudulhamid Dembos; the Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Malam Jibrin Baba Ndace and the Director General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Dr Mohammed Bulama.
Also yesterday, the ADC accused Tinubu’s administration of deceiving Nigerians with false revenue claims, citing a N21.22 trillion shortfall between the 2025 budget projection and actual collections, despite the government’s claim of meeting revenue targets.
The party also condemned the new 5 per cent petrol tax and the 300 per cent hike in passport fees, calling them cruel policies that punish struggling Nigerians and push more people into poverty, while the government celebrates revenue collection.
In a statement signed by Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, the party questioned why the government continues to borrow despite its claims of record revenue.
The ADC challenged the self-congratulatory claims by Tinubu regarding the so-called record-breaking revenue growth.
‘’While President Tinubu and his government parade statistics and issue grand statements, the reality on the streets tells a story of hardship and suffering across the country. Nigerians will recall that when the 2025 budget was passed, it projected a total revenue of N41.81 trillion. Yet today, the federal government is celebrating the mobilisation of N20.59 trillion, leaving a gaping shortfall of N21.22 trillion.
‘’Put in perspective, this would mean an average revenue of N3.48 trillion per month, totaling N27.87 trillion for the first eight months of the year. Is the government then claiming to have surpassed N27.87 trillion, or, even more incredulously, the full N41.81 trillion projection already? These figures simply do not add up.
‘’Even more troubling is the fact that not all the revenue in question flows to the federal government. The federal government only receives 52.68 per cent of statutory revenue, while its share of VAT (Value Added Tax) is just 15 per cent. So, even by the most optimistic assumptions, the numbers being paraded are unrealistic.
‘’ When measured on a pro-rata basis for January to August or against the full-year target, the shortfall becomes even more glaring. This exposes the hollowness of the claims by the government and also reveals these so-called revenue achievements for what they truly are, another act in the APC and President Tinubu’s propaganda performance,’’ Abdullahi stated.
The spokesman of the ADC said that the President also made laughable statements about the exchange rate, claiming that when he took office on May 29, 2023, the dollar-to-naira rate was N1,900 to a dollar, and that it is now N1,450, describing it as patently false.
‘’A simple Google search will show that on the morning President Tinubu was sworn in, the naira traded at approximately N460.72 to the US dollar, and between N700 and N800 in the parallel market.
‘’ The reality is that under President Tinubu’s watch, the naira has lost more than 50% of its value, wiping out savings and leaving ordinary Nigerians to bear the brunt through skyrocketing food prices, soaring rents, and suffocating transport costs,’’ Abdullahi stressed
According to the opposition party, another false claim by Tinubu was that the government has stopped local borrowing, maintaining that only a few days ago, on August 26, 2025, the Debt Management Office (DMO) announced that it raised N136.16 billion through a Federal Government bond auction.
‘’This is apart from the $21 billion loan hurriedly approved by the National Assembly in July without any details of its purpose, bringing the national debt stock to $120 billion or N180 trillion, the highest in Nigeria’s history. The question to ask is: if revenues are truly being met, why is this government still borrowing? The answer is simple, the revenue narrative is built on falsehood.
‘’One thing is clear to all Nigerians: instead of improving lives, this government has chosen to punish the very people it was elected to serve through policy choices that allow it to claim economic progress while condemning the majority to abject poverty. For the avoidance of doubt, despite all claims of economic stability, Nigeria remains the poverty capital of the world.
‘’This fact alone should humble any serious government. Instead, the Tinubu administration has chosen to compound the misery, as evidenced by the recently introduced 5 per cent petrol tax,’’ it stressed.
The ADC said that it finds the tax cruel and deeply insensitive at a time when the majority of Nigerians are still reeling from the effects of fuel subsidy removal. Regardless of the economic motives behind the tax, it noted that what is clear is that the Tinubu government simply does not care about the people.
“The least Nigerians deserve are interventions to mitigate the impact of subsidy removal, not an additional tax that will further burden them. As if this were not enough, the government has also increased the cost of obtaining a Nigerian international passport by 300 per cent, making it one of the most expensive in the world.
“In the United Kingdom, a passport costs just 5 per cent of the minimum monthly wage. In Nigeria, it now costs 143 per cent of the minimum wage. This is what governance has been reduced to under President Tinubu, taxing the very survival of the people, monetizing hardship, and celebrating suffering as success,” the opposition ADC stated.
From fuel taxes to passport price hikes, it pointed out that every policy seems designed to push Nigerians further into poverty, while a privileged few at the top live in excess and comfort.
‘’A government that constantly takes from the people while lying to them is not governing, it is exploiting. Nigeria cannot continue to function on the APC’s endless propaganda mixed with everyday punishments,’’ the party stressed.
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