Nigerians are not worse off today than they were in 1960, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga argued yesterday.
He said there was no basis to compare todays Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to what it was at Independence 65 years ago.
Onanuga was responding to a report ascribed to the President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, in which he claimed that Nigeria’s GDP per capita in 1960 was $1847 as against $824 today.
According to the Onanuga, the country’s GDP was $4.2 billion in 1960 and per capita income for a population of 44.9 million was $93, not even one $100.
In a post on his verified X Handle, Onanuga said: “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.”
He argued that policymakers know that whatever GDP figure published by the NBS publishes may not capture the economy’s full depth and breadth if it fails to include the informal economy, which some pundits have said may even be more significant than the formal economy
He said: “No objective observer can claim that Nigeria has not made progress since 1960. Today, as we await the NBS recalibration of our GDP, we can comfortably say without contradiction that it is at least 50 times, if not 100 times, more than it was at Independence.
“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.”
