Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has accused President Bola Tinubu of impoverishing Nigerians through the devaluation of the naira, arguing that the currency’s loss of value has worsened poverty across the country.

Obasanjo made the remarks on Wednesday at the Financial Times Africa Summit 2026 in London, United Kingdom, where he criticised the economic reforms introduced by the Tinubu administration in 2023.

He argued that the sharp depreciation of the naira had reduced Nigerians’ purchasing power, claiming that citizens had been made 300 per cent poorer.

“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.

The former President described Nigeria as “the poverty capital of the world,” arguing that the country’s economic situation could not be considered a success under the current administration.

“You cannot say to me that that is good for Nigeria. You cannot say to me that that is good for us in any sense,” he added.

Obasanjo also rejected arguments that Tinubu needed more time to deliver on his economic reforms, saying he had yet to see meaningful improvement in the economy.

“For the economy, I don’t see anything getting better. What policies are you seeing through? You impoverish your people, and you want to see impoverishment through?” he asked.

He further described the administration’s policies as being against the interests of Nigerians, adding, “Nobody can deny that.”

On the removal of the petrol subsidy, Obasanjo acknowledged the widespread impact of fuel prices on the economy but argued that corruption within the subsidy system should have been addressed first.

He said a country facing severe economic challenges must “curb corruption, wastefulness and unnecessary luxury and produce.”

The former President’s comments come amid continuing debate over the impact of the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms, particularly the removal of the petrol subsidy and the unification of foreign exchange rates.

Before the Central Bank of Nigeria unified the exchange-rate windows on June 14, 2023, the official exchange rate stood at about N460.80 to the dollar. The naira subsequently weakened, with the official rate reaching about N1,333.54 to the dollar on October 19, while it fell to a low of approximately N1,607.05 in early May 2025.

Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Statistics reported that headline inflation stood at 14.63 per cent in September, down from 20.98 per cent a year earlier. Food inflation, however, remained higher at 19.59 per cent, while Nigeria’s real gross domestic product grew by 4.43 per cent in the second quarter.

On August 19, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, said the removal of the petrol subsidy had saved the government N15.8 trillion between June 2023 and December 2025.