{"id":7718,"date":"2025-05-05T07:24:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T07:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/?p=7718"},"modified":"2025-05-05T07:24:40","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T07:24:40","slug":"presidency-disputes-adesinas-claim-that-nigerians-are-worse-off-than-in-1960","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/05\/presidency-disputes-adesinas-claim-that-nigerians-are-worse-off-than-in-1960\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidency Disputes Adesina&#8217;s Claim That Nigerians Are Worse Off Than in 1960"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" data-start=\"333\" data-end=\"642\"><em data-start=\"333\" data-end=\"360\">Abuja, Nigeria \u2013 May 2025<\/em><br data-start=\"360\" data-end=\"363\" \/>The Nigerian Presidency has issued a sharp rebuttal to recent comments made by the outgoing President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), <strong data-start=\"505\" data-end=\"529\">Dr. Akinwumi Adesina<\/strong>, who claimed that Nigerians are economically worse off today than they were at the time of independence in 1960.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"644\" data-end=\"877\">Reacting via a formal statement on Sunday night, <strong data-start=\"693\" data-end=\"735\">Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga<\/strong> criticized Adesina\u2019s assessment, describing it as based on flawed data and an overly simplistic interpretation of Nigeria\u2019s economic journey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"879\" data-end=\"1236\">Adesina had reportedly cited a GDP per capita comparison sourced from <strong data-start=\"949\" data-end=\"965\">Nairametrics<\/strong>, claiming the figure stood at <strong data-start=\"996\" data-end=\"1014\">$1,847 in 1960<\/strong> versus <strong data-start=\"1022\" data-end=\"1036\">$824 today<\/strong>. Onanuga rejected this as inaccurate, asserting instead that historical records show Nigeria\u2019s <strong data-start=\"1132\" data-end=\"1164\">GDP in 1960 was $4.2 billion<\/strong>, with a <strong data-start=\"1173\" data-end=\"1201\">per capita income of $93<\/strong>, for a population of 44.9 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1238\" data-end=\"1372\">\u201cGDP didn\u2019t rise significantly until the 1970s, driven by oil exports,\u201d Onanuga noted, providing a timeline of Nigeria\u2019s GDP growth:<\/p>\n<ul data-start=\"1373\" data-end=\"1476\">\n<li class=\"\" data-start=\"1373\" data-end=\"1399\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1375\" data-end=\"1399\">$12.55 billion in 1970<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-start=\"1400\" data-end=\"1425\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1402\" data-end=\"1425\">$27.7 billion in 1975<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-start=\"1426\" data-end=\"1451\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1428\" data-end=\"1451\">$64.2 billion in 1980<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-start=\"1452\" data-end=\"1476\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1454\" data-end=\"1476\">$164 billion in 1981<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1478\" data-end=\"1608\">He added that per capita income didn\u2019t exceed $880 until 1980, eventually peaking at <strong data-start=\"1563\" data-end=\"1581\">$3,200 in 2014<\/strong>, following a GDP rebasing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1610\" data-end=\"1906\">The Presidency stressed that <strong data-start=\"1639\" data-end=\"1677\">GDP per capita is a limited metric<\/strong> and fails to account for quality-of-life indicators like education, healthcare, and infrastructure. Onanuga argued that <strong data-start=\"1798\" data-end=\"1837\">modern Nigeria enjoys better access<\/strong> to schools, hospitals, roads, and digital services compared to 1960.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1908\" data-end=\"2064\">\u201cAt independence, Nigeria had only 18,724 telephone lines. Today, over 200 million Nigerians have access to mobile phones and internet services,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2066\" data-end=\"2262\">Citing the success of <strong data-start=\"2088\" data-end=\"2114\">telecom firms like MTN<\/strong>, Onanuga highlighted Nigeria\u2019s strong consumer market. MTN alone recorded <strong data-start=\"2189\" data-end=\"2215\">\u20a61 trillion in revenue<\/strong> in Q1 2025, serving over <strong data-start=\"2241\" data-end=\"2261\">84 million users<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2264\" data-end=\"2451\">\u201cThese figures challenge the narrative that Nigeria has regressed economically,\u201d Onanuga argued, asserting that <strong data-start=\"2376\" data-end=\"2437\">Nigeria\u2019s current GDP is at least 50 to 100 times greater<\/strong> than in 1960.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abuja, Nigeria \u2013 May 2025The Nigerian Presidency has issued a sharp rebuttal to recent comments made by the outgoing President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who claimed that Nigerians are economically worse off today than they were at the time of independence in 1960. Reacting via a formal statement on Sunday [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Presidency refutes Adesina\u2019s remarks, citing economic growth, telecom boom, and infrastructure gains since Nigeria\u2019s 1960 independence.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7722,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7718\/revisions\/7722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}