Millions of Nigerians are currently suffering from the worst form of cost-of-living crisis in a generation, the Financial Times says, urging President Bola Tinubu to tackle food inflation as a major priority.
In its Tuesday editorial on Tinubu’s government and Nigeria’s precarious socio-economic and political situations focused on accessing Mr Tinubu’s two years in office, the UK-based newspaper said Nigeria “is in better shape than at any time in the past decade” and that the Nigerian president has “stabilised the economy and laid the groundwork for a broader recovery”.
The FT, however, admitted that this “may come as a surprise — or even sound like a sick joke — to tens of millions of Nigerians who are suffering the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation”.
Mr Tinubu must prioritise tackling food inflation, tax reform, banditry and terrorism, the newspaper said.
“First, his government has to tackle inflation — still running at 24 per cent — with more urgency. Food is the biggest driver. State governments need to increase supply by providing farm inputs, security and better access to market,” noted the FT.
It added, “Most crucial, the government must confront banditry and terrorism with the same single-mindedness as it did distorted monetary policy.”
In a previous publication, the FT wrote a scathing editorial revealing the underbelly of Mr Tinubu’s persona and his nascent administration’s scatter-gun policies.
In the past two years, Mr Tinubu’s dual policies of fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate unification have led to a significant increase in fuel prices, from N145 to over N1000 and later to about N900, while the naira has collapsed from about N700 to a dollar to over N1600 to a dollar.
With inflation at 24 per cent under Mr Tinubu, Nigeria recorded the largest increase in acute food insecurity globally in 2024, according to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises published by the Global Network Against Food Crises in collaboration with the Food Security Information Network and UNICEF.
“In West Africa and the Sahel, in Nigeria, an additional 6.9 million people faced high levels of acute food insecurity, bringing the total to 31.8 million,” the report said.
The International Monetary Fund reported that poverty and food insecurity remained high under Mr Tinubu.
The World Bank’s Africa Pulse report of April 2025 also stated that Nigeria, under Mr Tinubu, has the highest number of extremely poor people globally, warning that more Nigerians will be plunged into poverty by 2027.
