TDF Accuses Obasanjo of Driving 86m Nigerians Into Poverty

The Democratic Front (TDF) has accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of worsening poverty in Nigeria through his foreign exchange policies, rejecting his criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms.

The group described as hypocritical Obasanjo’s allegation that Tinubu’s policies had pushed more Nigerians into poverty, insisting that the former president’s economic decisions contributed significantly to the country’s poverty burden.

In a statement issued on Saturday by its Chairman, Mallam Danjuma Muhammad, and Secretary, Chief Wale Adedayo, TDF said Obasanjo’s comments at the Financial Times Africa Summit 2026 in London were regrettable.

It accused the former president of wasting Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves to defend the naira at the expense of investments in electricity and other critical infrastructure needed to stimulate production.

The group claimed that the policies contributed to pushing 86 million Nigerians into multidimensional poverty by 2007, when Obasanjo left office.

“We can still recall how former President Olusegun Obasanjo operated multiple windows of foreign exchange that encouraged arbitrage and emboldened round-tripping of subsidised dollars, which gradually depleted Nigeria’s huge foreign reserves and suffocated local production and productivity,” the statement said.

TDF also faulted the privatisation of state-owned enterprises under the former president, arguing that the exercise displaced workers and increased the country’s dependence on imported goods.

According to the group, the policies weakened the government’s capacity to invest adequately in electricity, agriculture, education, healthcare, infrastructure and industrial development.

It further accused Obasanjo of presiding over an economy that failed to grow in line with the country’s population, blaming the situation on the administration’s decision to subsidise petroleum and defend the naira in the foreign exchange market.

The group maintained that Tinubu’s decision to allow the naira to reflect its market value was necessary, rejecting Obasanjo’s description of the policy as devaluation.

TDF said the former president should also account for the performance of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), which his administration established in 2001 to tackle poverty.

It argued that the agency failed to deliver significant results during its seven years of operation, compared with what it described as the gains of Tinubu’s social and economic intervention programmes.

The group listed wage and pension increases, payment of outstanding pension arrears, student loans, Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP) loans, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) support for businesses and cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians among the initiatives introduced by the Tinubu administration.

TDF insisted that these interventions had recorded greater progress in addressing multidimensional poverty than the programmes implemented under Obasanjo.

“We call on Nigerians to disregard Obasanjo’s politically motivated tirades against Tinubu’s reform,” the group said.

It further alleged that the former president’s criticism was politically motivated and intended to give an advantage to his preferred candidate ahead of the next presidential election.