Atiku: Tinubu’s Policies Put Decent Living Out of Reach

“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.

Former Vice-President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of making decent living increasingly unaffordable for Nigerians.

Atiku, in a statement issued on Saturday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the latest Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Household Expectations Survey contradicted the Federal Government’s claims of economic improvement.

He cited the survey’s low buying-condition indices for major household assets, including motor vehicles at 28.7 points, consumer durables at 28.9 points, and buildings and landed property at 30.0 points.

Atiku also noted that willingness to purchase vehicles stood at 18.7 points, while willingness to acquire buildings and landed property was 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.

According to him, the figures showed that Nigerians were being priced out of home ownership, vehicle ownership and other basic assets as household incomes were increasingly consumed by food, transportation, electricity, school fees and other necessities.

He said the findings were consistent with the recent SBM Intelligence Jollof Index, which highlighted the growing pressure on household budgets.

Atiku said the average cost of ingredients for a pot of jollof rice for a family of five had risen to N29,578, representing more than 40 per cent of the N70,000 minimum wage.

He argued that such expenses left workers with little or no disposable income for savings, investments or asset acquisition.

“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,” Atiku said.

The former vice-president accused the administration of focusing on macroeconomic indicators such as GDP growth and foreign reserves while household purchasing power continued to weaken.

“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.

Atiku warned that declining purchasing power could further weaken businesses and the wider economy, stressing that economic growth should ultimately translate into improved living standards for citizens.

“An economy succeeds when citizens can work, earn, eat, save, invest and progressively improve their standard of living,” he said.

He urged President Tinubu to place greater emphasis on household welfare rather than what he described as “PowerPoint economics”.

“The real economy is the Nigerian family’s pocket, and that pocket is increasingly empty,” Atiku said.

He added that a government could not credibly claim prosperity while Nigerians struggled to afford food, purchase vehicles or own homes.

“Tinubu has not merely increased the cost of living. He has increased the cost of dreaming,” he said.