For several weeks, the Federal Government has said that it has dispatched 740 trucks of rice to the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Twenty (20) trucks containing 1,200 bags of 25kg of rice were meant to reduce the hunger in society. But observers have insisted that the largesse amounted to a drop of water in an ocean, as the palliatives were so paltry that they cannot even scratch the surface of suffering the people are going through.
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Modupeola Morris, a Nigerian mother, has been weaving bags, sandals and jewellery earning enough money to feed her son and send him to school. But since November, she has fallen on hard times as customers have stopped coming and she and her son routinely go to bed hungry.
She is among millions in Africa’s largest economy, grappling with the worst cost-of- living-crisis in decades, which has deepened since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu introduced bold but unpopular economic reforms after he assumed office last May.
A major challenge for the Nigeria economy was its macroeconomic volatility driven largely by external terms of trade shocks and the country’s large reliance on oil export earnings.
Last year, Morris could easily make N30,000 a week but now she will be lucky to get N5,000, she said.
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“People used to place orders. I’ll design for them, sometimes even (for) weddings I’ll make souvenirs for them, but now those orders are not coming,” said the 29-year-old Abuja resident.
“It has been very, very difficult, especially since I have a son and he needs to go to school; he needs to eat.”
Tinubu inherited an economy that was already struggling with record debt, high unemployment, low oil output, subsidies that drained government finances and power shortages that crimped growth.
Nigeria imports food and fuel. The Russia-Ukraine war has also impacted the country negatively as it has affected imports of certain commodities. Nigeria is also among some other nations yet to recover from the devastating effect of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Tinubu, who campaigned on a “Renewed Hope” slogan, removed a costly petrol subsidy and foreign currency controls, in an effort to improve government finances, restore credibility with investors and kick-start the economy.
But inflation has soared to its highest in three decades and the naira currency is slumping to record lows, pressured by acute dollar shortages. Prices of food, cooking gas, medicines, fuel, and public transport have shot up, squeezing household budgets.
“With about 8 percent of Nigerians deemed food insecure, Using the September 2018 to October 2019 household survey of expenditures, the cost of achieving 2251 calories per day (age-weighted caloric need for food security), is about N82,000 per person per year. Based on this survey, about 40 percent of the Nigerian population is identified as food insecure. Addressing rising food insecurity is the immediate policy priority,” the International Monetary Fund said on March 4, 2024.
At Mile 12 market in Lagos is unusually quiet for the time of day when there is often a cacophonous din of traders and customers haggling over prices.
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A basket of tomatoes now costs N120,000 -N140,000 – about double the national minimum wage approved recently. With the promise of a review every three years, the Federal Government and organised labour have settled for a new national minimum wage of N70,000 monthly. This is an increase of 133 percent over the former N30,000. It has been a long-drawn battle.
Dalhatu, a tomato seller at Mile 12 market, Lagos, said that the high cost of tomatoes has forced many of his friends to quit the business.
“They are just trying to find what they can eat now and not do the tomato business,” he said, pointing to several empty stalls.
Escalating food prices, agric and non-agric output, rainfall, insecurity are the major drivers of inflation.
Widespread insecurity in food growing areas, including abduction for ransom by armed gangs, a long-running Islamist insurgency and farmer-herder clashes, is adding to the woes by keeping many farmers away from their fields, Musa Yusufu, a farmer in Yobe State, told our reporter the cost he incurs to plant and harvest its products is extremely high. He said that he has to pay the bandits while planting his crops and harvesting its produce just for his safety.
“We have an emergency on our hands in terms of the social consequences of this reform, in terms of this food insecurity,” Muda Yusuf, an economist and immediate past director general of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), said recently.
Labour unions led some protests a couple of months ago and have threatened to shut down the country to demand a tenfold rise in the minimum wage.
In response, the government started national consultations on a new monthly minimum wage, which had been pegged at N30,000 since 2019, but increased recently to N70,000.
The Federal Government said it has dispatched 20 trucks of rice to each of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
It also said that the new move was part of measures to ease the economic burden of Nigerians.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja recently.
Idris said each state has received truckloads of rice, each containing 1,200 bags of 25kg rice for onward distribution to the most vulnerable persons and families.
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Unions however, said that this was not enough and that focus should be on “substantive issues” that have been under discussion with the government since June 2023.
“These include critical matters such as wage increases, social welfare programmes, infrastructure development, and the revitalisation of key sectors such as education and healthcare,” the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said in a statement.
Unfortunately, the palliatives released by the government are said not to be getting to the people, they are being “cornered” by those expected to share them to the target citizens.
Observers said that the state has become so predatory that anyone that gets hold of such palliatives meant for the poor citizens corners such items as his/her own share of the massive loot allegedly going on in government.
