Former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi has blamed the increase in the number of Nigerians living in poverty on the economic reforms embarked upon by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Obi made this claim on March 16 in a post on his official X account, where he criticized the government’s economic reforms, arguing that they have pushed more Nigerians into poverty.
He cited a recent policy study by Agora Policy—supported by the Nigeria Economic Stability and Transformation Programme and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office—which revealed that the poverty headcount rose sharply from a baseline of about 49.8% to roughly 63%.
Obi said the report shows that poverty in Nigeria has worsened significantly since the introduction of the current administration’s economic reforms.
“A new policy study released by Agora Policy… has shown that the poverty rate in our country has climbed from about 40% before the current reforms to over 63% today under this administration, explicitly showing that the economic reforms of this administration have pushed more Nigerians into poverty than ever experienced in our dear nation.”
He added that the increase means a large majority of Nigerians are now struggling to meet basic needs.
“For a country whose population is estimated at over 220 million people, this means that well above 140 million Nigerians now live in poverty. Families nationwide can no longer afford basic necessities such as food, transportation, rent, or healthcare.”
According to him, households across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones are increasingly resorting to difficult coping strategies such as cutting food consumption, trekking instead of paying for transport, and borrowing money to survive, while many small businesses are shutting down.
