Olusegun Ariyo
As reactions continue to trail comments by President of the Africa Development Bank, AfDB, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina who said that “the condition of Nigerians were worse off after 65 years” the former Executive Director of News of the Nigerian Television Authority, Shittu Alamu said the comment was a fact with commanding evidence, hence it shouldn’t have drawn the ire from the presidency.
Shittu-Alamu faulted President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategic Communication, Bayo Onanuga, for condemning Adesina over the commen,t which he said didn’t go down well with the presidency.
Recall that Dr Adesina, an Agric Economist spoke to power last week, drawing a comparison between the Nigerian people of 1960 at independence and their counterparts he found on the streets 65 years later and declared that Nigerians were worse off.
Tinubu’s aide in swift response condemned the AfDB boss and blamed him for basing his conclusion on what he calls “figures that do not align with available data.”
Onanuga had insisted that “No objective observer can claim that Nigeria has not made progress since 1960″.
The former NTA boss argued that Dr Akinwunmi had, during his tenure as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in the former President Goodluck Ebeloe Jonathan administration, introduced robust policies towards reforming the agriculture sector, but were sadly abandoned by successive governments, including the current administration.
According to him, Adesina was only echoing the reality of the pathetic condition of Nigerians, many of whom struggle to eke out a living without boasting of three meals a day.
He said, “But seriously speaking, is Onanuga right? No, he is not. He can’t be right.
This is because having plenty of money in one’s pocket does not translate into wealth.
“If the common man fed his family with five or even ten Naira in a month in the 1960s but does so with five hundred thousand Naira in a month today, 65 years later, would we say such a man has progressed?”
“The presidential aide also accused the Afdb boss of “speaking like a politician in the mould of Peter Obi but did not do his due diligence before making his unverifiable statement”.
“Will an Agricultural Economist like the Afdb boss make an unverifiable statement? Will he? Should he? Will he not do due diligence before he talks about his own country?
“Does he not readily see the result of government initiatives and policies in the people? Let us be more frank and factual. As President of AfDB can Dr.Adesina truly be said to be someone who does not have economic indices of all African nations at his fingertips?
“We may not be experts in Economic matters, even as Onanuga wants us to believe. We can give it to him that GDP per capita is not the only criterion we can use to determine whether people live better now than they did in the past.
“All the same, our little understanding of basic Economics tells us it is a poor tool for assessing the living standard of our people. Is GDP per capita not always silent on whether we as Nigerians enjoy better access to health care, education and transportation, such as rail, and air now than we did in 1960, 65 years back?”
