Abuja, May 6, 2025 – The Presidency has faulted the claim by Akinwunmi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), that poverty has rising in Nigeria since independence as indicated by Nigeria’s GDP per capita.
Adesina, had last week during the 20th anniversary of Chapel Hill Denham, said that Nigeria’s GDP per capita had declined to $824 from $1,847 in 1960.
He attributed Nigeria’s worsening economic situation to its overdependence on crude oil.
Onanuga, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, has reacted to Adeshina’s claim in a post on X on Monday.
He said Adeshina’s claim did not align with available data.
Onanuga said Nigeria’s GDP was $4.2 billion in 1960, and per capita income for a population of 44.9 million was $93, ninety-three, not even one hundred dollars.
“Our country’s GDP did not rise remarkably until the 1970s when crude earnings ballooned.
“In 1970, our GDP rose to $12.55 billion. In 1975, it was $27.7 billion; $64.2 billion in 1980; and $164 billion in 1981, he said.
Onanuga said GDP per capita could not be the only criterion used to determine whether people live better lives now than in the past.
“GDP per capita is silent on whether Nigerians in 2025 enjoy better access to healthcare, education, and transportation, such as rail and air transport than in 1960,” he said.
Onanuga particularly said Nigeria had only 18,724 telephone lines in 1960 for about 45 million people.
“Today, over 200 million Nigerians have access to mobile and digital services.
“Does this MTN experience correlate with a country worse off than in 1960, when we had analogue telephones and the number of lines was fewer than 20,000?” he asked, referencing MTN’s N1 trillion revenue and 84 million users in Q1 2025.
“Adesina spoke like a politician in the mould of Peter Obi, and did not do due diligence before making his unverifiable statement.
“Today, as we await the NBS’s recalibration of our GDP, we can comfortably say without contradiction that it is at least 50 times, if not 100 times, more than it was at Independence,” he said.
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