On October 21, 2026, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, made a forthright but self-implicating appraisal of President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s reform policies and the precarious situation they have created for most Nigerians at Chatham House in London. Admitting that ‘up to 120 per cent of household income is spent on food,’ Oyedele noted that ‘headline inflation is falling faster than the price of a basket of tomatoes, gari, and beans. And this widens inequality. Macroeconomic stability means little to a mother who still cannot afford food.’
Daily Trust commends the minister for acknowledging the reality of life in Nigeria: typical poor households are facing severe hardship due to acute cost-of-living pressures arising from the gap between macroeconomic indicators and lived experiences.
Indeed, for the majority of the ‘working poor’ and the unemployed, coping with official food inflation of 19.6 per cent in September, alongside a decline in headline inflation to around 14.6 per cent, means that broader macroeconomic gains have little meaning because they do not translate into affordable basic food. This is particularly so because spending a higher proportion of household income on food is sustainable only through borrowing, drawing down savings, relying on informal support or adopting coping mechanisms such as skipping meals, switching to lower-quality food and cutting spending on non-essential goods and services.
Obviously, this increases debt vulnerability and financial stress while reducing spending on healthcare, education, transport, housing and other necessities. It also makes malnutrition, poorer health outcomes, interrupted schooling and eroded living standards more likely.
This is regrettable, especially as President Tinubu has repeatedly stated that Nigeria’s economy is on an irreversible path of growth, citing recent data from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The data show that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth increased from 2.9 per cent in 2023 to 3.4 per cent in 2024. It rose to 4.16 per cent in the first half of 2026, up from 3.68 per cent in the corresponding period of 2025.
Meanwhile, annual average inflation reached 24.4 per cent and stood at 28.92 per cent in December 2023. In 2024, it climbed to 33.24 per cent. In 2025, it moderated to 23.01 per cent and dropped to 14.63 per cent by September 2026. However, the poverty figures cited in support of the minister’s assessment paint a different picture: the poverty rate rose to 56 per cent in 2023, 61 per cent in 2024 and 63 per cent in 2025.
The number of people living in multidimensional poverty places Nigeria among the countries recording the largest absolute increases in their poor populations. This is despite the official unemployment rate of five per cent under the government’s new survey methodology and the growing number of people who are employed but still struggle to meet their basic needs.
All these figures show, in practical terms, that either the government has failed to fulfil its promises to alleviate the suffering of citizens or has not taken deliberate and effective steps to implement policies and programmes that create an enabling environment for people to thrive. For example, the 2,000 tractors procured under the Renewed Hope National Agricultural Mechanisation Programme (RHAMP), which have been ready for distribution since mid-2025, have yet to be fully distributed. Nigerian farmers are also still having to procure fertilisers at exorbitant prices.
Moreover, Daily Trust reminds governments at all levels that countries around the world are implementing various measures to protect their citizens from the crisis arising from the US-Iran war in the Middle East. What the government needs to understand is that Nigerians are extremely vulnerable and have little to fall back on beyond their already precarious circumstances. They cannot feed on microeconomic or macroeconomic statistics. The government should embrace clear and consistent policies that improve the lives of the majority of Nigerians rather than resort to haphazard, ad hoc measures. It is time to return to the drawing board because citizens are suffering unnecessarily.
Governments at all levels should also recognise that Nigeria remains one of the countries with the highest levels of poverty in the world. Therefore, the sight of ministers and other top officials driving Rolls-Royces and civil servants flying in private jets is completely out of step with the realities of ordinary Nigerians. The plight of the majority should be reflected in the lifestyles of public officials and in how the executive and legislature spend public funds.
Most importantly, there should be deliberate efforts to tackle high food prices through structured interventions, including increasing agricultural yields, improving smallholder farmers’ access to finance, pursuing vigorous seasonal farming and reducing high post-harvest losses, which sometimes reach 60 per cent for tomatoes and other perishable produce. There should also be improvements in storage and logistics, reductions in high transportation costs and concerted efforts to eradicate insecurity.
What is not in doubt is that many Nigerians are yet to feel the positive impact of the reforms or the relief programmes introduced alongside them. This is why we call on the government to embrace faster and more effective measures to make food available and affordable and improve living standards.
Daily Trust also urges the minister, whose responsibilities include overseeing Nigeria’s fiscal policies and strategic economic direction, to use his expertise to ensure policy coherence and integration in ways that create jobs and wealth and lift citizens out of poverty. This includes ensuring effective and efficient electricity supply and promoting investment in the agricultural, health and education sectors. There is a need to grow the productive sectors of the economy, increase incomes, and gradually move citizens away from dependence on occasional government handouts. This is the only way improved macroeconomic indicators can mean anything to a hungry citizen.