Nigeria Has No Reason To Be Poverty Capital Of the World” – Peter Obi 

By Onoja Baba, Nigeria 

Former Anambra State governor and Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, has declared that Nigeria’s status as the world’s poverty capital is inexcusable given the country’s vast natural and human resources.

Speaking on Monday in Abuja at the launch of The Living Secret: Endowment for – Development in Nigeria An Ogoni Experiment, authored by renowned economist and former Chief Economic Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Professor Magnus Kpakol, Obi said the nation’s persistent poverty is a direct consequence of leadership failure and entrenched criminality in the system.

“Nigeria has no reason to be poor or to be the poverty capital of the world, considering the abundant resources God has given us, both beneath and above the earth,” Obi told the audience.

He praised Professor Kpakol’s 272-page book for its bold proposal of the Full Local Ownership (FLO) model, using the Ogoni Experiment as a practical example of how inclusive development can transform resource-rich communities.

Obi reiterated his long-standing position that Nigeria’s challenges are fixable through competent leadership, which can only emerge when systemic corruption and criminality are dismantled.

“Dismantling this criminality and building a new Nigeria is POssible but it must involve all of us,” he said.

The event attracted economists, policymakers, and development experts who commended the book’s focus on local ownership as a pathway to sustainable growth in Nigeria’s resource-bearing regions.