Peter Obi: Nigeria Has More People in Poverty Than China, Indonesia, Vietnam Combined

Peter Obi: Nigeria Has More People in Poverty Than China, Indonesia, Vietnam CombinedChuks Okocha in Abuja

The Labour Party presidential candidate in 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has attributed Nigeria’s deepening poverty which stalled development in Nigeria for decades to poor political leadership.
Obi, who spoke at Johns Hopkins University in the United States on Thursday, warned that Nigeria now has more people living in poverty than China, Indonesia, and Vietnam combined.

Delivering a lecture titled: ‘Politics and Change in Nigeria’, Obi gave comparisons between Nigeria and other emerging economies over the past 35 years, noting that while countries like China, Indonesia, and Vietnam have advanced significantly, Nigeria has regressed.

Sharing the key points from the lecture via his verified X account yesterday, the former Anambra State governor stressed that leadership remains the decisive factor in a nation’s development.
The full post by Obi on X reads: “Yesterday, at Johns Hopkins University, USA, I honoured the invitation to speak on ‘Politics and Change in Nigeria’ from Professor Peter Lewis, the famous author of ‘Growing Apart: comparing Indonesia and Nigeria’.

“In discussing this very critical issue, which directly impacts the direction of a nation, I pointed out that the failure of a nation depends largely on its Political Leadership. Competent, capable and compassionate political leadership, with integrity, will help nations to achieve sustainable growth and development.
“In my speech, I tried to assess three of our comparable nations – China, Vietnam and Indonesia, from 1990 till date. In 1990, the year the measurement of the Human Development Index (HDI) was started, these three comparable nations, including Nigeria, were all classified under the medium category of the HDI measurement. 35 years later, three of these nations have moved up to the High category of HDI while Nigeria has fallen into the low category.

“Within the same period of 35 years, from 1990 to 2025, the GDP per capita of these comparable nations have all improved. As of 1990, while Nigeria had a GDP per capita of $556, China had $317, Indonesia had $578, and Vietnam had only $99. Nigeria, obviously, had higher GDP per capita than China, while Vietnam had less than one-fifth of Nigeria’s per capita.

“Today, Nigeria’s per capita is about one-fifth of Indonesia’s ($5000) and Vietnam’s (4400) GDP per capita and below one-tenth of China’s (1300) GDP per capita. In the area of poverty, Nigeria with about 50 million poor people, had the least number of people in poverty in 1990 than any of the three countries.

“While China had about 750 million people living in poverty, Indonesia and Vietnam had 85 million and 60 million poor people, respectively. China alone had about 15 times the number of poor people than Nigeria. Today, however, Nigeria has more poor people than these three countries combined.

“The question then is, what exactly did these countries do to be able to achieve the desired growth and development? That is where political leadership comes in.

“These comparable nations, and indeed other progressive nations, unlike Nigeria, have competent leadership with character, capacity and compassion, committed to prioritising investment in critical areas of developmental measures; education, health, and pulling people out of poverty. A new Nigeria is possible.”