The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Economic Affairs, Tope Fasua, has stated that Nigerians today are experiencing better living conditions compared to the period following the country’s independence in 1960.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television on Friday, Fasua argued that drawing comparisons between Nigeria’s present realities and its early post-independence years presents a skewed perspective.
He explained that in 1960, the majority of Nigerians lived in rural areas with limited infrastructure and that widespread poverty only began to emerge as people migrated into urban centres.
“For those who try to compare Nigeria to 1960, in many ways we are living a better life now than used to be the case,” Fasua said.
“In 1960, just after independence, we had a whole lot of people, of course, living in villages and so on. It was when we took over government as nationals ourselves that we started moving from villages to Lagos, to Ibadan, to Kaduna, to Enugu and all of that, and then that created a kind of urban poverty.”
Fasua further noted that the current administration is pursuing a long-term approach aimed at structural transformation rather than short-term financial handouts.
“The current administration is saying that, look, we are not going to really be sharing money, we want to do something that takes us on a different trajectory, that paints a new picture, that prepares even our children and unborn children for a better life than what we have had,” he added.
