The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of failing to address Nigeria’s worsening food crisis, saying the government has ‘run out of ideas’ on how to ease the rising cost of living.
Bolaji Abdullahi, National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, in a statement faulted the federal government for celebrating a moderation in headline inflation while ignoring the sharp rise in food prices confronting millions of Nigerians.
The opposition party said the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that food inflation rose from 17.52% in June to 20.31% in July year-on-year, while month-on-month food inflation increased from 3.75% to 5.56%
The ADC said the figures painted a more troubling picture of the economy than the headline inflation rate being celebrated by the government.
‘While the government celebrates the moderation in headline inflation announced by the NBS, the same report tells a much more troubling story,’ the party said.
The ADC spokesman argued that the government’s focus on core and headline inflation had failed to capture the daily hardship faced by Nigerians struggling to afford basic food items.
‘This means that the prices of food items like rice, tomatoes, onions, pepper, beef, eggs, garri and other basic foods in Nigeria increased by 48% in July alone. That is the economy Nigerians are experiencing under Bola Tinubu’s APC,’ the party said.
The ADC spokesman challenged the administration to explain why Nigerians were finding it increasingly difficult to afford food if its economic reforms were delivering the claimed results.
‘The Tinubu administration must answer a very simple question. If the government’s economic reforms are working, why are Nigerians still finding it increasingly difficult to afford food?’ the party asked.
ADC’s alternative
The ADC proposed treating food security as a national security priority, with an integrated national food production and distribution strategy targeting the staples most consumed by Nigerians.
The party said an ADC government would reduce farmers’ production costs by addressing the rising prices of fertiliser, seeds, machinery, diesel, transportation and finance.
It also identified insecurity as a major obstacle to food production, arguing that farmers could not produce enough food when they were unable to access their farms, harvest crops or transport them to markets.
The party further proposed measures to reduce the cost of moving food from farms to consumers, citing poor roads, insecurity, transportation costs and multiple levies as factors driving up food prices.
It also promised to establish a transparent national food reserve and strategic buffer system capable of releasing essential staples when prices spike and purchasing from farmers when prices collapse.
‘The responsibility of government is not to explain that contradiction away. It is to fix it,’ the ADC said.