Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has accused President Bola Tinubu of making every Nigerian poor by 300 per cent through the devaluation of the naira, saying the policy has turned Nigeria into “the poverty capital of the world.”
Obasanjo spoke on Wednesday at the Financial Times Africa Summit 2026 in London, United Kingdom.
He said the naira lost its value overnight due to economic reforms undertaken by the Tinubu administration in 2023.
The statesman argued, “We do not live in isolation as a country. We interact with the rest of the world. And overnight, you devalue the currency by 300 per cent. The naira went from N500 to a dollar to N1,500 to a dollar. What that meant was that every Nigerian is made poor by 300 per cent.”
Obasanjo said that had made Nigeria “the poverty capital of the world,” which he said meant the country had the largest number of poor people in the world.
