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The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has issued a strong rebuke of the Nigerian presidency’s response to recent comments by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), accusing the administration of living in denial and seeking to silence factual economic assessments. The group urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to stop what it described as the unnecessary berating of Dr. Adesina, calling instead for a sober reflection on the country’s deteriorating economic conditions.

In a detailed statement signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA criticized the presidency for attacking Adesina’s assertion that Nigerians are poorer today than they were at the time of independence in 1960. The rights group warned that dismissing such well-grounded analyses amounts to an evasion of responsibility and a failure to address urgent economic challenges.

“The truth is that, Mr. President introduces partisan politics into everything being discussed about the Nigerian situation even when those views are from such politically unbiased and unattached personalities and institutions such as the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwunmi Adesina, or the World Bank or International Monetary Fund,” HURIWA stated.

Dr. Adesina had sounded the alarm during a keynote address at the 20th anniversary dinner of investment firm Chapel Hill Denham in Lagos, noting that Nigeria’s per capita GDP had fallen drastically since independence. “Our GDP per capita in 1960 was $1,847. Today, it stands at $824. Nigerians are worse off than 64 years ago,” he declared, stressing the urgent need for economic transformation to secure Nigeria’s future.

Rather than taking these remarks as a call for reform, the presidency, through Special Adviser on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga, responded with sharp criticism. Onanuga posted on his verified X handle @aonanuga1956, dismissing Adesina’s data as incorrect and misleading. He argued, “According to available data, our country’s GDP was $4.2 billion in 1960, and per capita income for a population of 44.9 million was $93—ninety-three, not even one hundred dollars. Our GDP did not rise remarkably until the 1970s, when crude earnings ballooned.”

But HURIWA countered that the government’s defense was a smokescreen intended to obscure the dire reality on the ground. “The clever-by-half resort to politically twisted and highly doubtful GDP statistical data churned out by paid agencies in which case Bayo Onanuga thinks that he can deceive gullible Nigerians to believe that we are better off than our Parents were in the 1960s,” the group stated.

“This statement by Onanuga is farther from the truth. Only someone who is bereft of knowledge of social studies and history wouldn’t know that in the 1960s, citizens of Nigeria were not killed and that economic activities by common citizens were uninterrupted by bandits, terrorists and kidnappers that are now having a field day.”

HURIWA reinforced its argument by referencing a recent World Bank report, which paints a grim picture of poverty levels in Nigeria. The World Bank’s April 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief revealed that 75.5% of rural Nigerians live below the poverty line, while 41.3% of urban residents face similar hardship. The institution warned that unless structural reforms are implemented, poverty will only deepen over the next five years.

“Is President Tinubu also unaware of the report by the World Bank?” HURIWA queried pointedly. “If the President pretends to be asleep and unaware of the realities on the ground, then he needs to also read up the current report by the World Bank on the growing phenomenon of rural poverty.”

The rights group further emphasized that Nigeria’s economic decline is not solely reflected in GDP statistics but in everyday realities such as inflation, insecurity, and collapsing public services. HURIWA contrasted the current state of affairs with the 1960s, noting, “Everyone who has the gift of discernment and wisdom, must know that the 1960s Nigeria wasn’t as bad as we are currently even from the angles of corruption and bad governance, dictatorial leadership which is worse now than ever before even as the deliberately orchestrated bad governance practices of virtually all past civilian administrations since 1999 aside those of Obasanjo, has induced the heightened state of insecurity across Nigeria just as insecurity festers and multiply hunger and poverty.”

Highlighting the naira’s dramatic depreciation, HURIWA lamented, “The Nigerian currency in the 1960s was far better in value than dollars and pounds sterling but currently President Bola Ahmed Tinubu devalued the Naira and has made the Naira the most worthless currency in the World.” The group also recalled better-maintained infrastructure, accessible scholarships, and easier job prospects in the past, questioning why such stark contrasts were being dismissed by the government.

“Why is Bayo Onanuga disputing the views of Akinwumi Adesina who is one of our very best in terms of knowledge economics?” HURIWA asked. The association urged the presidency to stop politicizing economic discourse and instead listen to credible experts like Adesina.

In conclusion, HURIWA warned that ignoring informed criticism would only deepen Nigeria’s socioeconomic woes. “The presidency should rise above defensiveness and embrace evidence-based policymaking. This is the only way to reverse Nigeria’s economic decline and restore hope for millions of suffering citizens.”

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