Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has criticized President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, saying the sharp depreciation of the naira has worsened poverty and eroded Nigerians’ purchasing power.
Obasanjo spoke on Wednesday at the Financial Times Africa Summit 2026 in London, where he faulted the government’s foreign exchange policy.
He said the naira’s fall from about N500 to the dollar to N1,500 had made Nigerians poorer by 300 percent.
“What that meant was that every Nigerian is made poor by 300 percent,” he said, describing Nigeria as the “poverty capital of the world.”
The former president also rejected calls for Tinubu to be given more time to implement his policies, saying he had yet to see significant improvements in the economy.
“What policies are you seeing through? You impoverish your people, and you want to see impoverishment through?” he asked.
Obasanjo also criticized the handling of petrol subsidy removal, arguing that corruption accounted for much of what Nigeria called subsidy and should have been tackled first.
He urged the government to curb corruption, waste, and unnecessary luxury while increasing domestic production.
The criticism comes as official data show that Nigeria’s headline inflation fell to 14.63 percent in September from 15.39 percent in August, while food inflation remained high at 19.59 percent. The economy also grew by about 4.4 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, according to Reuters.
