Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, accusing his administration of impoverishing Nigerians through the devaluation of the naira.
Obasanjo made the remarks on Wednesday at the Financial Times Africa Summit 2026 in London, United Kingdom, where he argued that the sharp depreciation of the national currency had significantly eroded the purchasing power of Nigerians.
According to the former president, the naira’s fall from about N500 to the dollar to approximately N1,500 represented a 300 per cent increase in the naira cost of a dollar, with serious consequences for the economic well-being of citizens.
“We do not live in isolation as a country. We interact with the rest of the world. And overnight, you devalue the currency by 300 per cent. The naira went from N500 to a dollar to N1,500 to a dollar. What that meant was that every Nigerian is made poor by 300 per cent,” he said.
Obasanjo argued that the economic situation had contributed to Nigeria’s reputation as the “poverty capital of the world,” referring to the country’s large population of people living in poverty.
“You cannot say to me that that is good for Nigeria. You cannot say to me that that is good for us in any sense,” he added.
The former president also questioned calls for more time to allow Tinubu’s reforms to yield results, insisting that he had yet to see convincing evidence of economic improvement.
“For the economy, I don’t see anything getting better. What policies are you seeing through? You impoverish your people, and you want to see impoverishment through?” Obasanjo asked.
He further maintained that the policies introduced by the Tinubu administration were not serving the best interests of Nigerians.
“Nobody can deny that,” he said.
On the removal of the petrol subsidy, Obasanjo acknowledged the far-reaching impact of fuel prices on the economy but argued that corruption associated with the subsidy regime should have been tackled before the government took further action.
He called for greater efforts to curb corruption, waste and unnecessary luxury, while encouraging increased domestic production as part of measures to address the country’s economic difficulties.
The former president’s comments come amid ongoing debates over the effects of the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms, particularly the removal of the petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market.
Before the Central Bank of Nigeria unified the exchange-rate windows on June 14, 2023, the official exchange rate stood at approximately N460.8 to the dollar.
The naira subsequently weakened significantly, with the official rate reportedly reaching about N1,333.54 to the dollar on October 19, while it had fallen to around N1,607.05 in early May 2025.
Despite the depreciation of the currency, recent economic indicators have shown mixed developments.
The National Bureau of Statistics reported that headline inflation stood at 14.63 per cent in September, down from 20.98 per cent a year earlier.
However, food inflation remained elevated at 19.59 per cent, even as Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product grew by 4.43 per cent in the second quarter.
