ADC Punctures Tinubu’s Claims On Revenue Success… Flays 5% Petrol Tax, 300% Passport Fee Hike

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of deceiving Nigerians with false revenue success claims.

The party cited a N21.22 trillion shortfall between the 2025 budget projection and actual collections, puncturing the government’s claim of meeting revenue targets.

The opposition party also condemned the new 5 percent petrol tax and the 300 percent hike in passport fees.

In a statement on Thursday by the spokesman of the ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party flagged the policies as cruel.

The party said the policies were aimed at punishing struggling Nigerians and pushing more people into poverty, while the government celebrates revenue collection.

Stating that the figures do not add up, the ADC wondered why the government keeps borrowing despite its claims of record revenue success.

The party described President Tinubu’s recent chest-thumping
regarding the government’s record-breaking revenue growth as deceptive.

“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,” the ADC said.

More troubling, the party noted, is the fact that not all the revenue in question flows to the Federal Government. The government at the centre only receives 52.68 percent of statutory revenue, while its share of VAT is just 15 percent.

It said even by the most optimistic assumptions, the numbers being paraded by the government are unrealistic.

The ADC said, “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 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.”

The opposition coalition also dismissed as laughable, President Tinubu’s 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.

“This is 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 percent of its value, wiping out savings and leaving ordinary Nigerians to bear the brunt through skyrocketing food prices, soaring rents, and suffocating transport costs.”

The party similarly described as false, the President’s claim, that the government has stopped local borrowing.

“Only a few days ago, on August 26, 2025, the Debt Management Office 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 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.”

The party knocked the government for introducing the five percent petrol tax, saying the Tinubu administration has chosen to compound the people’s misery.

It described the petrol tax as 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 this tax, what is clear is that this 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 percent, making it one of the most expensive in the world.

“In the United Kingdom, a passport costs just 5 percent of the minimum monthly wage. In Nigeria, it now costs 143 percent of the minimum wage.

“This is what governance has been reduced to under President Tinubu, taxing the very survival of the people, monetising hardship, and celebrating suffering as success.

“From fuel taxes to passport price hikes, 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.”

ADC Punctures Tinubu’s Claims On Revenue Success… Flays 5% Petrol Tax, 300% Passport Fee Hike is first published on The Whistler Newspaper