Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has argued that Nigeria has no justification for remaining poor, saying the country possesses the land, water, climate, human resources and natural wealth required to build a prosperous economy.
Obasanjo made the remarks during an interview on C-Suite Café, where he examined Nigeria’s economic difficulties and questioned why a country with such extensive resources continues to struggle with poverty. His comments were reported on September 14, 2026.
The former president pointed to Nigeria’s agricultural potential as one of the clearest examples of what he considers a failure to properly use the country’s resources. He said Nigeria has millions of hectares of arable land, favourable climatic conditions and abundant water, all of which could support large-scale food production and agricultural exports.
Obasanjo also argued that Nigeria’s human capital remains a major but underutilised asset. He referred to the entrepreneurial and intellectual capacity of Nigerians both within the country and in the diaspora, suggesting that better use of that capacity could contribute significantly to economic growth.
Beyond agriculture, he identified solid minerals, crude oil and natural gas as resources capable of providing Nigeria with broader sources of revenue. His argument was that the problem is not simply whether Nigeria possesses resources, but whether successive governments have created the policies, institutions and economic environment required to turn those resources into sustained prosperity.
A major part of Obasanjo’s criticism was directed at policy inconsistency. He argued that long-term programmes, particularly agricultural initiatives, are often abandoned when administrations change. Such interruptions, in his view, prevent policies from producing the sustained results required to transform sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing.
He also cited corruption, crude oil theft and leakages in revenue collection as obstacles to development. When public resources are lost or diverted, the government has less capacity to invest in infrastructure, education, healthcare, security and productive sectors that can create jobs and raise household incomes.
The former president also raised concerns about public borrowing and recalled the debt relief secured during his administration, which he said amounted to about $30 billion in 2005 and 2006. His reference to the debt episode formed part of a broader argument that Nigeria needs stronger fiscal discipline and better management of its resources rather than relying excessively on borrowing.
Obasanjo’s argument comes against the backdrop of Nigeria’s continuing poverty challenge. The National Bureau of Statistics’ 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index found that 133 million Nigerians, representing 63 per cent of the population at the time of the survey, were multidimensionally poor. That measure covers several dimensions of deprivation rather than income alone.
The scale of that challenge also shows why the former president’s statement should be treated as an argument about Nigeria’s potential rather than evidence that poverty can be eliminated simply because the country has natural resources. Resources can provide the foundation for development, but turning them into better living standards requires productive investment, functioning institutions, security, reliable infrastructure, human-capital development and policies that survive political transitions.
Obasanjo’s central point is therefore less about the physical abundance of Nigeria’s resources than about the country’s ability to convert those resources into broad-based economic opportunity. Nigeria may possess the ingredients for prosperity, but the gap between potential and actual living standards remains one of the country’s most persistent development problems.
For the claim that Nigeria has “no business with poverty” to become more than a political or economic slogan, the country would have to demonstrate that its resources are being converted into productive jobs, affordable food, reliable public services and sustainable income growth for ordinary citizens. That remains the more difficult test.
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