ABUJA, Nigeria – The Nigerian presidency has rejected a claim by African Development Bank (AfDB) President Akinwumi Adesina that Nigerians are economically worse off than they were at independence in 1960, calling the assertion “politically coloured” and “factually inaccurate.”
Responding in a statement on Monday, May 5, 2025, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, challenged the use of GDP per capita as the sole measure of national wellbeing.
He argued that it is a “poor tool” for assessing the living standards of Nigerians.
“Dr. Adesina should know that GDP per capita is not the only criterion used to determine whether people live better lives now than in the past,” Onanuga said.
“Indeed, it is a poor tool for assessing living standards.”
The rebuttal follows a speech by Adesina on Friday, May 2, 2025, at the Chapel Hill Denham 20th Anniversary dinner in Lagos, where he highlighted that Nigeria’s GDP per capita had dropped from $1,847 in 1960 to $824 today, despite being the continent’s largest economy.
Adesina said the country’s economic structure was “deeply flawed and unsustainable.”
Onanuga, however, disputed the figures and the conclusion.
He said Nigeria’s GDP in 1960 stood at $4.2 billion, giving a per capita income of $93 for a population of roughly 44.9 million.
He noted that per capita income did not surpass $880 until 1980, and peaked at $3,200 in 2014 after economic rebasing.
He added that GDP per capita fails to reflect critical social improvements achieved since independence.
“Compared with 1960, Nigeria today has more primary, secondary, and tertiary schools. We have more road networks and medical facilities. We have phenomenal access to telephones,” Onanuga said.
Citing telecommunications growth as an example, he stated that Nigeria had only 18,724 operational telephone lines in 1960, whereas today over 200 million citizens have access to mobile and digital services.
He also highlighted the profitability of telecommunications companies, such as MTN, as evidence of economic resilience.
“MTN’s 2025 Q1 result showed N1 trillion revenue and 8.2 percent subscription growth. Can a country that’s supposedly worse off than in 1960 support that level of market growth?” he queried.
The presidential aide further criticised Adesina for “sounding like a politician in the mould of Peter Obi,” accusing him of offering sweeping conclusions without considering Nigeria’s vast informal economy.
“No objective observer can claim that Nigeria has not made progress since 1960,” Onanuga said, adding that current GDP is “at least 50 times, if not 100 times, more than it was at Independence.”
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), he noted, is expected to recalibrate Nigeria’s GDP to reflect broader economic activity, particularly from the informal sector.
