The Presidency on Tuesday says it does not consider the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, a political threat to the Bola Tinubu administration.
“As a politician, I don’t consider Akinwumi a threat to this president or to our political party [All Progressives Congress],” the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed when he appeared on TVC’s ‘Beyond the Headlines’ show with Nifemi Oguntoye.
He added, “I don’t think he is a political threat. I said I was surprised that he made what I would consider as a non sequitur kind of argument or kind of conclusion.
“In Latin, you say it doesn’t follow; that, because GDP has fallen in 2025 so it means per capita income has fallen in 2025 does not mean that life, necessarily, was better in 1960 than now. That was the point I was making.
“I also said that as a politician, I don’t consider Dr Akinwumi a threat to this president or to our political party.”
On May 2, Adesina jolted an Abuja policy forum when he declared that Nigeria’s GDP per capita has collapsed from $1,847 at independence in 1960 to about $824 today, insisting this meant “Nigerians are now significantly worse off than they were 64 years ago.”
He argued that shrinking income per head exposed the “depth of poverty and low human‑development outcomes” that must be tackled if the country is to reap its demographic dividend.
Adesina’s remarks drew rebuttal from the presidency, which accused the AfDB chief of relying on “grossly inaccurate” figures.
It said archival World Bank data put Nigeria’s 1960 GDP per capita at just $93, not nearly two thousand dollars, making any straight‑line comparison with today’s estimate misleading.
“Adesina should know that GDP per capita is not the only criterion used to determine whether people live better lives,” Onanuga wrote in an earlier reaction, adding that such analysis must consider improvements in life expectancy, schooling and infrastructure.
The presidential aide also suggested the AfDB boss “spoke like a politician,” arguing that the Tinubu administration is expanding rail, roads and social program that did not exist in 1960 and therefore cannot be captured by a single income metric.
He maintained that, adjusted for purchasing power and quality‑of‑life indicators, “Nigerians are certainly not worse off” than at independence.
