Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC, Atiku Abubakar, has described the latest Central Bank of Nigeria CBN Household Expectations Survey as a damning verdict on President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies, saying an economy in which citizens are abandoning plans to buy homes, cars and basic household assets cannot credibly be advertised as one on the path to prosperity.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Friday in Abuja, Atiku said the CBN’s own numbers have stripped the government’s economic propaganda of whatever credibility it had left.
According to the survey, buying conditions stood at just 28.7 points for motor vehicles, 28.9 for consumer durables and 30.0 for buildings and landed property. Even more disturbing, 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,” Atiku said, adding that the figures show Nigerians are being priced out of decent living, with a home “becoming a fantasy” and a car “becoming a luxury.”
He said families are exhausting their incomes on food, transportation, electricity, school fees and other necessities, leaving practically nothing for savings, investment or asset acquisition.
Citing the latest SBM Jollof Index, Atiku noted that the ingredients required to prepare a single pot of jollof rice for a family of five now cost an average of ₦29,578, meaning that for a worker earning the ₦70,000 minimum wage, one 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.
“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 said.
According to him, it was particularly insulting for the Tinubu administration to continue celebrating headline macroeconomic indicators while the personal economies of Nigerian families deteriorate.
“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,” he said, adding that “between official statistics and empty cooking pots, the cooking pots do not lie.”
He warned that the collapse in household purchasing power also threatens the wider economy, noting that when citizens cannot consume, businesses cannot sell; when businesses cannot sell, production falls; and when production falls, jobs and livelihoods disappear.
“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,” Atiku said, insisting that “before there is GDP, there must be dinner. Before there is prosperity, there must be purchasing power.
“President Tinubu should stop governing Nigeria through PowerPoint economics. The real economy is the Nigerian family’s pocket, and that pocket is increasingly empty.
“Tinubu has not merely increased the cost of living. He has increased the cost of dreaming”, he said.
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