Presidency Dismisses Adesina’s Grim Verdict That Nigerians Today Are Worse Off Than In 1960, Amid Growing Alarms Over Poverty

The Nigerian presidency rejected forcefully against a declaration by the president of the African Development Bank (AFDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who warned last week that the Nigerians today are more badly lotis than in 1960.

In a refutation published by the presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga, the government rejected both the figures and the conclusion of Adesina's remarks, misleading and inaccurate calling on them.

Adesina had told guests at the 20th anniversary dinner of the investment company Chapel Hill Denham in Lagos that the GDP per capita of Nigeria had gone from $ 1847 in 1960 to only $ 824 today, suggesting that economic difficulties had deepened despite the growth of the country's population and economics during the decades.

But Onanuga argued that historic data do not support Adesina's statements. He said that in 1960, Nigeria's GDP amounted to $ 4.2 billion and, with a population of 44.9 million inhabitants, per capita income did not exceed $ 93. This figure, he said, only increased considerably during the 1970s oil boom years and culminated at $ 3,200 in 2014 after a GDP meal exercise.

Refutation noted that if the current GDP per capita per capita of Nigeria oscillates approximately $ 824, the metric itself does not offer a complete image of national development. Onanuga argued that GDP per capita does not take into account the inequality, distribution of informal wealth and economic activities – of factors that weigh heavily in a country like Nigeria, where a large part of trade and work exists outside official statistics.

However, Adesina is not the only one to ring the alarm. Next to him are other voices – notably that of Peter Obi, former governor of the state of Anambra and presidential candidate in 2023, who has repeatedly warned that Nigeria is dangerously close to collapse due to poor economic management, increasing debt and uncoped poverty. Obi also criticized what he describes as a lack of emergency and seriousness in governance, warning that leadership seems to be disconnected from the realities that ordinary Nigerians are confronted.

Beyond individuals, international institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have raised similar concerns in recent months, painting an increasingly dark image of the Nigeria poverty situation. Last week, the World Bank revealed that 75.5% of the rural population of Nigeria now lives below the poverty line, rural inhabitants carrying the weight of inflation, the food shortage and the drop in purchasing power. In total, more than 104 million Nigerians are now living in multidimensional poverty, many unable to afford the basic necessities such as food, refuge, health care and education.

The IMF, in its own assessment, called on Nigeria to urgently reform its budgetary system, slow down unnecessary subsidies and extend the tax net to fill the country's development gaps. But these advice, often considered deaf by local criticism, have triggered a debate, in particular at a time when citizens are already overwhelmed by high fuel prices, the rise in food costs and the collapse of public services.

Meanwhile, the growing public feeling reflects frustration – not only to worsening living conditions, but also that many consider a government more concerned to defend itself than to fight poverty. This belief is underlined by the rapid dismissal of the presidency of the comments of Adesina, which is considered to be a manifestation of a broader culture of reluctance to face hard truths or to accept the criticisms of experts and institutions.

Even if Onanuga highlighted infrastructure gains, access to mobile phones and road networks, experts note that the advantages of such development have been distributed unequally and remain inaccessible to many poor rural and urban. The explosion of mobile telecommunications, although revolutionary, did not do much to protect people from the overwhelming weight of inflation and unemployment.

The World Bank itself has warned that less than urgent measures are taken to stimulate inclusive growth, invest in human capital and reorganize agricultural productivity, Nigeria may not achieve its poverty reduction objectives for the decades to come.

Dr. Adesina warned that Nigeria should radically transform its economic structure if it wanted to become competitive on a global and industrialized scale by 2050. This transformation, he underlined, must include significant investments in energy, transport, education and industry-further beyond what GDP per inhabitant can measure.

However, the presidency remains categorical on progress made. Onanuga insisted that Nigeria's GDP is today 50 to 100 times higher than in 1960 and the country has made giant progress in many sectors, even if not all are captured by a single metric. For millions of Nigerians struggling with daily difficulties, the debate on numbers may seem more and more out of words unless it results in a visible improvement in their standard of living.