Former Nigerian vice president Atiku Abubakar on Saturday said a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) survey showing weak household purchasing intentions was evidence of the failure of President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC), said the findings undermined the government’s claims of economic progress.
“The survey has stripped the propaganda of the President Bola Tinubu administration on the economy of whatever credibility it had left,” he said in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu.
The CBN’s latest Household Expectations Survey indicated that rising living costs were putting increased financial pressure on households and businesses.
Atiku cited buying-condition scores of 28.7 points for motor vehicles, 28.9 for consumer durables and 30.0 for buildings and landed property.
He said “willingness to purchase vehicles fell to 18.7 points, while buildings and landed property stood at only 19.2 points.”
“These are not figures manufactured by the opposition. They are the verdict of Nigerian households captured by the Central Bank under President Tinubu’s own government,” he said.
“What the figures tell us is simple: Nigerians are being priced out of decent living. A home is becoming a fantasy. A car is becoming a luxury. Household appliances are increasingly beyond reach. Families are exhausting their incomes on food, transportation, electricity, school fees and other necessities, leaving practically nothing for savings, investment or asset acquisition.”
Atiku also pointed to the latest SBM Jollof Index, saying it illustrated the impact of rising prices on household budgets.
“Only recently, the Jollof Index told us what Tinubu’s economy has done to the Nigerian kitchen. Now the CBN survey is telling us what it has done to the Nigerian dream.”
According to Atiku, the index put the average cost of ingredients for a pot of jollof rice for a family of five at ₦29,578.
“The numbers make the tragedy even more stark. According to the latest SBM Jollof Index, the ingredients required to prepare a single pot of jollof rice for a family of five now cost an average of ₦29,578. Think about what that means for a worker earning the ₦70,000 minimum wage: one ordinary pot of jollof rice can swallow more than 40 per cent of an entire month’s salary, before rent, transportation, electricity, school fees and healthcare are considered.
“And this is the same economy in which Nigerians are now postponing the purchase of homes, cars and basic household assets because there is simply no disposable income left. Tinubu has not merely made life more expensive; his policies are steadily pricing ordinary Nigerians out of food, comfort, asset ownership and the basic dignity of a decent life.”
He accused the government of focusing on headline economic indicators while households struggled with everyday expenses.
“Government officials can celebrate GDP growth, foreign reserves and other statistics from air-conditioned conference rooms, but ordinary Nigerians have become unwilling economists, calculating every cup of rice, every litre of fuel and every transport fare before deciding what their families can afford. Between official statistics and empty cooking pots, the cooking pots do not lie.
“An economy is not successful merely because government officials can quote favourable statistics. An economy succeeds when citizens can work, earn, eat, save, invest and progressively improve their standard of living.
“Before there is GDP, there must be dinner. Before there is prosperity, there must be purchasing power. And before a government congratulates itself on reform, ordinary citizens must be able to see and feel improvement in their own lives,” Atiku said.
He said Nigerians deserved an economy where work produced dignity and income created opportunity, rather than one in which households sacrificed their ambitions simply to survive until the next payday.
Atiku also called on Tinubu to stop celebrating what he described as “PowerPoint economics”.
