Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Economic Affairs, Tope Fasua, has claimed that Nigeria is now safer from phone snatching than some foreign countries, including the United Kingdom, despite growing complaints by Nigerians over insecurity and economic hardship.
Fasua made the remarks during a members-only Coffee Hangout organised by Kay Hikers Club in Abuja.
During the discussion, a female participant criticised the rising cost of ride-hailing services and increasing cases of phone theft, saying many Nigerians could no longer afford basic needs.
She also questioned the safety of commuters using ride-hailing platforms.
She asked, “Are you aware of the current situation concerning the safety and the pricing errors in that system? Are you aware that even as a person, you are not safe boarding these cars?”
The woman further linked worsening economic conditions to the rise in crime across the country.
She said, “The gatesmen of your estates, your security guards, they are underpaid. Therefore this is equal to you being robbed or raped as a woman or as a human being. You can no longer walk on these streets without being robbed because they want your phone so they can sell it. Because the common man is coming from a place of survival.”
She urged Fasua to convey the level of hardship Nigerians were facing to President Tinubu, insisting that statistics could not fully capture the reality on the ground.
She stated, “With economists and statistics people, you have to be number conscious. Nigerians are no numbers. We are real people going through real hell. So how is the government planning to mitigate the issues with the grassroots? We are suffering. We are suffering.”
Responding, Fasua argued that phone theft was not peculiar to Nigeria, citing experiences in London and Cameroon.
“In the streets of London, go to UK, you see phone smashing. One woman was here from Cameroon. Her name is Victorine. She’s a vlogger. She was here in Nigeria. And she tells you that in Cameroon you can’t hold your phone like this,” he said.
The presidential aide maintained that phone snatching was no longer a major concern in Nigeria and warned against portraying the country negatively.
“Nigerians have moved ahead from all these phone snatching. It is not a major crisis in Nigeria. I do my walks in the morning. I work everywhere. It’s not an issue. Let’s not look for every excuse to put the country down. It is not every security issue we have.”
Another participant at the event also disagreed with Fasua’s position, accusing him of reducing serious national challenges to issues of personal mindset.
“I feel like you are now beginning to spiritualise the issues in Nigeria when you say mindset, because it’s not actually supposed to be a mindset, it’s a reality,” the man said.
However, Fasua insisted that Nigerians still had a responsibility to improve their personal conditions irrespective of the government’s performance.
He said, “There are things that each andevery one of us can still work on to be able to survive better than we were surviving. There’s no amount of money that we have that we cannot give a little out of.”
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