A political advocacy group has accused former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo of hypocrisy, blaming his past economic policies for pushing millions of citizens into poverty.

The Democratic Front (TDF) issued the sharp rebuttal following remarks made by Mr. Obasanjo at the Financial Times Africa Summit 2026 in London, where the former leader criticized President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms for worsening hardship.

In a statement signed by Chairman Mallam Danjuma Muhammad and Secretary Chief Wale Adedayo, the group dismissed Mr. Obasanjo’s comments as “regrettable” and politically motivated to favor opposition candidates ahead of the upcoming 2027 presidential election.

The group argued that Mr. Obasanjo’s administration depleted Nigeria’s foreign reserves by artificially defending the naira and maintaining multiple exchange rate windows, which it said encouraged arbitrage, stifled local production, and left 86 million Nigerians in multi-dimensional poverty by 2007.

“The former president should be reminded of how his policies on petrol and naira subsidy triggered avoidable poverty among Nigerians, a desperate situation that compelled him to create a largely unsuccessful public agency called the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) in 2001,” the statement read.

TDF contrasted those outcomes with President Tinubu’s current fiscal approach, asserting that allowing the local currency to find its true market value has laid a better foundation for long-term growth.

The group further claimed that the current administration’s social intervention programs—including student loans, consumer credits, small business grants, and targeted cash transfers—have achieved more in reducing poverty in three years than NAPEP did over seven years.