Presidential aide Bayo Onanuga has criticised outgoing African Development Bank (AfDB) President Akinwumi Adesina over recent remarks suggesting that Nigerians were better off in 1960 than they are in 2025, describing the assertion as misleading and data-deficient.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, Onanuga challenged Adesina’s comparison of Nigeria’s GDP per capita across the two periods. According to Adesina, GDP per capita was $1,847 in 1960 and has dropped to $824 today. Onanuga, citing Nairametrics and other economic records, disputed the figures, stating that Nigeria’s actual GDP per capita in 1960 was around $93 — not even $100 — based on a GDP of $4.2 billion and a population of 44.9 million at the time.
He emphasized that Nigeria’s economy only saw significant growth in the 1970s due to the oil boom, with GDP increasing from $12.55 billion in 1970 to $164 billion in 1981. Even then, per capita income did not exceed $880 until 1981, when it peaked at $2,187 before falling again in 1982.
Beyond statistical disputes, Onanuga argued that GDP per capita is an inadequate tool for judging living standards, as it fails to reflect wealth distribution, informal economic contributions, or quality of life indicators such as access to healthcare, education, and transportation.
“GDP per capita is silent on whether Nigerians in 2025 enjoy better access to services than in 1960,” he wrote. To illustrate, he compared telephone access across the years — noting that in 1960, fewer than 20,000 lines served the entire country, while over 200 million Nigerians now use mobile and digital services, with MTN alone generating N1 trillion and reaching 84 million users in Q1 2025.
He also dismissed Adesina’s remarks as politically motivated, likening them to those of opposition figures like Peter Obi, and accusing him of failing to verify his data.
Onanuga concluded that the scale of Nigeria’s economy today is far beyond what existed at independence, asserting: “We can comfortably say without contradiction that [GDP] is at least 50 times, if not 100 times, more than it was at Independence.”
