Former Nigerian presidential candidate and Labour Party flagbearer in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has attributed the deepening poverty crisis in Nigeria to decades of poor political leadership.
Speaking during a lecture at Johns Hopkins University on Thursday, Obi argued that Nigeria now has more poor people than China, Indonesia, and Vietnam combined — a reversal from three decades ago when Nigeria had the fewest among the four.
The lecture, titled “Politics and Change in Nigeria”, was delivered at the invitation of Professor Peter Lewis, author of Growing Apart: Comparing Indonesia and Nigeria. Obi shared excerpts from the event via his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle on Friday.
“The failure of a nation depends largely on its political leadership,” Obi said. “Competent, capable, and compassionate political leadership, with integrity, will help nations achieve sustainable growth and development.”
Drawing comparisons between Nigeria and other emerging economies, Obi noted that while countries like China, Indonesia, and Vietnam have advanced into higher categories on the Human Development Index (HDI), Nigeria has regressed over the last 35 years.
“In 1990, Nigeria and these three countries were all in the medium HDI category. Today, they’ve moved to high HDI status, while Nigeria has fallen into the low category,” he said.
He added that Nigeria’s GDP per capita has remained significantly lower. “Nigeria’s per capita GDP is now about one-fifth of Indonesia’s ($5,000), Vietnam’s ($4,400), and less than one-tenth of China’s ($13,000),” Obi noted.
Obi also highlighted the contrast in poverty levels. According to him, in 1990, China had around 750 million people living in poverty, Indonesia had 85 million, Vietnam 60 million, and Nigeria the least. Now, he said, Nigeria has surpassed the combined number of poor people in those three nations.
“This raises the critical question: what did these countries do differently?” Obi asked. “Their success lies in having political leaders with character, capacity, and compassion, who invested in education, healthcare, and poverty alleviation.”
World Bank Echoes Concerns
Obi’s comments align with recent findings by the World Bank, which projected that more Nigerians will fall into poverty by 2027, despite the country’s vast natural resources.
The warning was contained in the latest Africa’s Pulse report released during the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington D.C.
According to the report, sub-Saharan Africa continues to experience the highest rate of extreme poverty globally, with Nigeria among the countries bearing the brunt.
