Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga told Arise Television on Tuesday that he “does not share the view that the level of hunger often described by critics reflects the reality across Nigeria.”
He listed infrastructure, student loans and credit facilities as proof that “many Nigerians are benefiting” from Tinubu’s policies.
Onanuga, with due respect, that is not the Nigeria the rest of us live in.
Infrastructure does not cook soup.
Roads are important, but a mother in Mararaba cannot take a slab of concrete to the market. Since “subsidy is gone” on May 29, 2023, transport from Nyanya to Berger moved from ₦200 to ₦800. A bag of rice that was ₦35,000 in May 2023 sold for ₦77,000 in July 2024. The NBS put food inflation at 40.87% in June 2024 — the highest in 28 years. You cannot eat flyovers.
Student loans do not feed the unemployed.
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund is a good idea on paper. But it is a loan, not a grant, to students whose parents have lost jobs because manufacturers closed after the naira collapsed from ₦471/$1 to ₦1,606/$1. You cannot repay a loan with hunger. And the students still have to eat today.
Credit facilities do not create purchasing power.
Consumer credit for workers is useful — if you have a job. NBS data from 2022 already showed 133 million Nigerians in multidimensional poverty. The World Bank added 7 million more in 2024 because of inflation. Credit without income is debt. Debt without food is despair.
The reality across Nigeria.
Go to Utako Market, Mr. Onanuga. A paint bucket of garri is ₦3,500. A crate of eggs is ₦5,500. Minimum wage is ₦70,000, since July 2024. That wage cannot buy one bag of rice. Go to any teaching hospital: doctors are writing prescriptions patients cannot fill. Go to any motor park: drivers sleep in their buses because one trip no longer covers fuel.
SBM Intelligence tracked 4,416 kidnap victims in 2023. Hunger now walks with insecurity. Farmers do not go to farm. Traders do not open shops early. That is not “exaggerated.” That is documented.
The insult of denial.
To say hunger is exaggerated is to tell a man with no food that his stomach is lying. Policies are not felt in press releases. They are felt in pots. If “many Nigerians are benefiting,” name them. Show us the streets where ₦70,000 feeds a family of four for 30 days. Until then, the only thing exaggerated is the distance between Aso Rock and the average Nigerian kitchen.
We do not need a spokesman to tell us we are full. We need food.
When government disputes hunger, it is no longer governing. It is gaslighting.
Dr Tom Ohikere is a public affairs analyst and former Commissioner of Information, Kogi State.
