By Abiola Olawale
The Nigerian Presidency has dismissed remarks by the African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, who maintained that Nigerians were economically worse off today than at the time of independence in 1960.
The Presidency labelled the statement as misleading and one not backed by any scientific data.
It would be recalled that during a keynote address at the 20th-anniversary dinner of Chapel Hill Denham in Lagos, Adesina highlighted Nigeria’s economic challenges, stating that the country’s GDP per capita has plummeted from $1,847 in 1960 to $824 in 2024.
The outgoing AfDB President argued that this decline reflects a deeper economic regression, with Nigerians facing greater poverty today than 64 years ago.
Adesina also compared Nigeria’s stagnant growth to South Korea’s, which has surged from a lower GDP per capita in 1960 to over $36,000 recently.
But in its reaction via a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency challenged Adesina’s figures, calling them “unverifiable” and inaccurate.
The Presidency argued that Nigeria’s GDP per capita in 1960 was approximately $93, based on a total GDP of $4.2 billion and a population of 45 million, not $1,847 as Adesina espoused.
Onanuga further insisted that GDP per capita peaked at $3,200 in 2014 after economic rebasing, driven by oil revenue growth in the 1970s and beyond.
The statement reads in part: “A few days ago, outgoing AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina claimed that Nigerians today are worse off than in 1960, basing his conclusion on figures that do not align with available data.
“According to Nairametrics, he claimed that Nigeria’s GDP per capita in 1960 was $1847 and that it is $824 today. The quoted figures are not correct.
“According to available data, our country’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. Up until 1980, per capita income did not exceed $880. It rose to $2187 in 1981 and dropped to $1844 in 1982. In 2014, after rebasing, it reached an all-time high of $3,200.
“These facts raise questions about the source of Dr Adesina’s figures.
“But my mission in this response is not to poke holes in the erudite African banking president’s figures. The more substantive issue lies in Dr. Adesina’s conclusion based on these numbers.
“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. Indeed, it is a poor tool for assessing living standards.
“Its primary usefulness is in giving us the metrics to compare economic output in a country or between countries.
“GDP masks many activities in a country’s economy. It neither discloses wealth distribution or income inequality nor accounts for the informal economy, which experts have said is enormous. It does not account for subsistence farming or income transfer from one family member to another.
“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.
This premise alone suggests why Dr Adesina should not have arrived at his conclusion.”
Onanuga also underlined the fact that the issue goes beyond the disputed figures, highlighting what he called a fundamental misinterpretation of GDP per capita as an all-encompassing measure of a country’s progress.
He argued that assessing Nigeria’s progress since 1960 requires a broader perspective that accounts for improvements in infrastructure, healthcare, education, telecommunications, and transportation.
It noted that Nigeria now has significantly more schools, hospitals, road networks, and widespread access to digital services, with mobile phone access reaching nearly the entire population compared to fewer than 20,000 telephone lines at Independence.
He added that Nigeria’s GDP is now at least 50 to 100 times larger than it was in 1960.
