The keynote address delivered by Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), at the 20th anniversary dinner of Chapel Hill Denham, Lagos, must have stirred the hornet's nest at the heart of the Presidency to have attracted that angry retort by Bayo Onanuga, its chief spokesman. I have not been able to sight the complete copy of Adesina's speech that caused so much anguish to Onanuga.
However, I have seen excerpts, here and there, and in particular, the offensive portion has been viral in the media. Somewhere during the speech, Adesina stated, "Our GDP per capita in 1960 was $1,847. Today, it stands at $824. Nigerians are worse off than 64 years ago". In other words, Nigeria was better off in 1960 than it is now.
The reply from Onanuga was swift. He posited that Adesina's comparison of Nigeria's GDP per capita in 1960 and 2025 was flawed and misleading. Onanuga claimed that he cited data that showed that the GDP per capita in 1960 was grossly lower than what Adesina put forward. He said, 'Nigeria's GDP was $4.2 billion in 1960, and per capita income for a population of 44.9 million was $93 - ninety-three, not even one hundred dollars.'
Onanuga not only disputed the veracity of the figures used by Adesina to arrive at the objectionable conclusion of Nigeria being worse off today than in 1960, but he even questioned his motives for doing so. He said, "Adesina spoke like a politician, in the mould of Peter Obi, and did not do due diligence before making his unverifiable statement," he said.
Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn
I can understand the grouse of Onanuga. Chapel Hill Denham, the celebrant, is arguably Nigeria's preeminent investment firm, with their hands deep into where our financial policies are enacted and implemented. This is because Chapel Hill Denham was for many years chaired by none other than Nigeria's Minister of Finance, Wale Edun. From a report I picked from Business Times, Chapel Hill Advisory Partners Ltd was founded by Bolaji Balogun in April 2005, as an issuing house and financial advisory firm. Three years later, in 2008, Chapel Hill got into a partnership of sorts with Denham Management Ltd, an asset management and broker/dealer firm founded by Edun in 1994, to form Chapel Hill Denham. Edun served as chairman from 2008, retiring in 2021, though he is now reported to be no longer a shareholder of the firm.
This narrative is just by the way, but I hope readers will understand the special place Chapel Hill Denham has today in the country's scheme of things. Probably that's why the 20th anniversary celebrations attracted the crème a la crème of the country's players in the financial sector. Wale Edun was there in person and delivered a resounding speech that commended the firm's outstanding contribution to Nigeria's financial landscape over the past two decades. He even described Chapel Hill Denham as Nigeria's equivalent of Goldman Sachs, which he said is 'a testament to its bold leadership, innovation, and track record in producing top-tier financial talent'. The minister also used the opportunity to tell his audience how the government reform agenda is already delivering results.
Now, this seemed to be the wrong place and the wrong time for Adesina to come along, asserting that Nigerians are worse off today than over 60 years ago. Whatever figures he came up with and from whatever source would be suspect and debunked. In any case, from my perspective, I have issues to sort out with Adesina's assertions and conclusions. I do not believe that we are worse off now than in 1960, the GDP figures notwithstanding. For many of us who have witnessed the 1960s, it would be inexplicable to compare the two periods.
I entered primary school in 1960, in Maiduguri, and can still recall how hard life was compared to today. Maiduguri was probably a fraction of what it is today, both in size and population. There was electricity and portable water within the town, but most houses were yet to be connected in 1960. There were only two tarred roads, from the GRA ending in front of the Shehu's Palace. There were only a handful of primary schools and even fewer post-primary institutions.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
This can be reflected in many of the towns across the, then, northern region. There was not a single university in the entire northern region. The road networks linking towns and villages were abysmal, including public transportation. The 1960s were also the time of the worst upheaval this country had ever gone through. We had bouts of military coups, communal killings and years of civil war. One can go on and on. Undoubtedly, we cannot compare the two periods.
One fails to understand why Dr Adesina, an economist of high repute, a former minister, and now heading a leading development bank, would arrive at such a careless conclusion. To worsen matters, he displayed this careless conclusion to the wrong audience, in the wrong place and at the wrong time. It was an irredeemable faux pas.
