Oh my opponent, you see you’re deceived!
Nigerian senators are dragging the IMF’s latest report
Good morning, Big Brains. Welcome to another week of capitalism that I won’t be participating in. This is the last edition of The Big Daily I’ll write before I go on leave and pretend I’m a funemployed trust fund baby. See you guys in a week if Jesus tarries! You’ll be in good hands.
This Week’s Big Question: “Kiss, marry, kill — Osinbajo, Wike or Buhari?” Share your responses with us, and if we think they’re fun enough, we’ll feature them in the newsletter :) so be on the lookout.
- Margaret
Word count: ~ 1,000
Reading time ~ 5 mins
Let’s get into the news you missed during the weekend:
Nigerian senators are dragging the IMF’s latest report
Togolese youths are tired of their president
The Big Deal
Nigerian senators are dragging the IMF’s latest report
If you’re chronically online, you’d know nothing’s better than the viral Ghanaian debate clips. The only thing that comes close is the latest drama Nigeria has found itself in.
On Tuesday, June 24, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a report that classified Nigeria as the 12th poorest country in the world by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2025. But Nigerian leaders are calling BS.
Leading the resistance is Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (Ondo South), who thinks the IMF and World Bank need to get their facts straight. Reacting to the ranking in Abuja, the senator dared the global financial bodies to prove his claims wrong, specifically the part where Nigeria isn’t in the top 40 in economic rankings. He says Nigeria is actually the 42nd largest economy in the world.
Ibrahim added that the IMF deliberately overlooked Nigeria’s total GDP, which is the base factor for the per capita calculation they love to toss around. He insisted that President Tinubu’s administration has never denied the country’s economic struggles but is actively tackling them with the Hope Agenda.
He went further by accusing the IMF and World Bank of cherry-picking data. According to him, they’re more interested in collecting fat consultancy fees than telling a complete, unbiased story about Nigeria’s economy.
For context, the IMF claims that the average amount of money each person in Nigeria earns in a year is about $808 ( ₦1.2 million). Senator Ibrahim strongly disagrees; he says it’s actually closer to $1,597 ( ₦2.4 million). He also insists that Nigeria’s total economic worth (GDP) is $363 billion, which is not as bad as the IMF makes it seem.
Why is this a big deal?
Numbers typically don’t lie, especially when it comes to renowned organisations like the IMF, but Senator Ibrahim clearly begs to differ. We also buried our heads in history and figured that Senator Ibrahim wasn’t the first to raise concerns about how the IMF records numbers relating to Nigeria.
In April 2024, a former Director of the British Council in Nigeria, David Roberts, advised Nigeria to ignore the IMF’s prediction that the country would drop from the first to the fourth largest economy in Africa. According to him, Nigeria was better off trusting its own data gathered by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), because it paints a more accurate picture than whatever foreign agencies are pushing.
The IMF is yet to comment on Senator Ibrahim’s accusations, so it’s too soon to pick a side. However, the reality of many Nigerians makes it a little difficult not to lean towards the more realistic data.
According tothe NBS, the data collection agency we’re supposed to trust over the IMF, 67% of Nigerian households can no longer afford healthy or preferred meals. This number has almost doubled compared to what it was five years ago. That’s not exactly giving “42nd largest economy,” but what do we know?
Whenever the IMF decides to tell its side of the story with receipts, you’d be the first to know. But for now, whose data sounds more realistic to you — the IMF or Senator Ibraham? Take the poll at the bottom of the newsletter and let us know.
Togolese youths are tired of their president
Not to justify racism, but when the whites talk about Africa like it’s one big country, they might be on to something. At this point, we all seem to be living the same lives.
On Thursday, June 27, hundreds of protesters stormed the streets of Lome demanding the resignation of the country’s President, Faure Gnassingbe. The protests were triggered by the recent constitutional changes that critics say are designed to keep him in power indefinitely.
While the protests went on, Togo security forces tore an overused page from the African governments’ rulebook and disrupted the protest with tear gas and mass arrests.
Eyewitnesses say military jeeps were seen driving through neighbourhoods, and dozens of protesters were thrown into police vans. But Hodabalo Awate, Togo’s Minister of Territorial Administration, refused to comment on the crackdown.
President Gnassingbe, who’s been in power since 2005 after taking over from his father, has made himself head of the Council of Ministers, a powerful role with no term limits.
Under the banner “Hands Off My Constitution,” the opposition movement has made its demands clear: Gnassingbe must step down, 100 political detainees must be released, and something must be done about the unbearable cost of living in Togo.
From Togo to Nigeria, the script is the same.
Your next big read
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Let’s settle this thing…
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