APC: Stop Blaming Tinubu For Poverty, States Control Key Factors

Felix Morka, the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has urged Nigerians to stop blaming President Bola Tinubu for the country’s poverty crisis. He argued that state and local governments hold the primary responsibility for addressing these issues.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, Morka explained that many factors driving multidimensional poverty fall under subnational jurisdiction. He claimed public discourse unfairly places excessive pressure on the Federal Government for challenges that constitutionally belong to states and local councils.

According to Morka, metrics used to measure poverty, such as access to clean water, basic healthcare, and sanitation, are largely the duty of subnational authorities. He emphasized that these livelihood-related services are not the direct responsibility of the Federal Government.

The APC spokesman highlighted that since the removal of the fuel subsidy in 2023, significant savings and resources have been redirected to state and local governments. He said this financial shift gives subnational leaders greater capacity to tackle poverty-related challenges.

Morka attributed the tendency to focus solely on the President to Nigeria’s legacy of an over-centralized system inherited from military rule. He said this mindset persists even in the current democratic era.

“A lot of the factors, a lot of the issues that come into that whole system of multidimensional poverty are not really the responsibilities of the federal government,” Morka said.

He added, “Many of those livelihood issues belong within the province of subnationals but in this country we tend to focus almost obsessively on the federal government, on the President, whereas local governments, state governments, are the ones who carry the burden of actually ameliorating some of the conditions that play into all of that data set about multi dimensional poverty.”

Morka continued, “We sit here and just say Tinubu is not… whereas if you look at the system, the revenue generation and allocation system, since fuel subsidy was removed in 2023, you find that the bulk of the resources and savings from fuel subsidy have been distributed to sub national now.”

He concluded, “In our analysis we always put the sex light on the president. Maybe that’s where it’s been because of our over centralized system under the military system. We extend that to even a democratic system.”

Morka reiterated that issues like water supply and basic healthcare are within the province of subnational governments, not the Federal Government.